


Voltron Mixed Ideas Dump

by Mkuja87



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Randomness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2019-08-24 12:52:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16640477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mkuja87/pseuds/Mkuja87
Summary: It changes, a lot. Just sayin' its kinda gay. (It's not gay if it's in space.) Keiths Pov mainly, and at one point I enter the topic of LGBTQ. (I'm just a supporter)





	1. Let's get Musical

My name is Keith Kogane, but people call me Keith, what did you expect? I'm sixteen years old, a trumpet player, a marching band member, and an orphan. The band is my family for all I care. Chloe and Zach are my closest friends and Lance, or better known a McLeggy or sharpshooter, calls himself my rival. I don't really pay attention to him because the first thing he said to me was ‘What a shame your mother left, mine would never do that.’ Matt, Shiro, and Adam, the drum majors, weren't happy with him. Katie, or Pidge as they call themselves, and Hunk apologized to me for Lances words, but I was to busy grabbing my trumpet and leaving the field to listen. The director was disapproving of my actions but I was too busy packing my stuff up and leaving. Oh, I should get to what you came for.

 

“And the representative of the Garrison Private Academia in Texas, Keith Kogane on the trumpet.” My heart turned in my chest as I walked in and headed for the spot I would make it or break it in. “What will you be playing for us?” the judges seemed like they wanted a rookie like me dead. “I will be playing Granada and Flight of the Bumblebee.” “Do not lie. That will get you points docked-” The first note from my trumpet was sharp enough to slice diamond. The judge that was speaking went quiet as I played through my first song. “Wow.” I waited a few seconds before shooting into Flight of the Bumblebee. My fingers were numb as I flew through the song. At one point my pinky managed to creep under a valve and I broke it without a second thought, playing as it happened. “You are dismissed.” I walked out to the tempo of my heart. Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, continuously.  “Here are your results.” I was moving on.

 

“It's like you were bred to be a musician.” I nodded while looking at a picture of my father and I. “You there Keith?” I looked at the laptop and nodded. “Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about my father.” I had been close to him as a baby, I know that much, but he died in a fire. “Tomorrow you compete to see who gets the money and worldwide fame.” I blew a strand of my black hair out of my face. “Yeah, let the whole world know that an orphan is good at playing an instrument.” I was condescending. “Hey, when you get back I'll do whatever you want for you. You're representing our school.” “We go to a prestigious music school known for music only rivaled by the Garla Private Academia.” “An orphan made it in.” “So did the dead broke Cuban.” “I'm hanging up, you're in a bad mood.” I closed my laptop and looked at the ceiling. “Why did you choose me, Padre? Why am I the one who you gave the trumpet to all those years ago? Why am I in this dumb event? It isn't gonna give me mama or you back.” I closed my eyes and let myself drift to sleep in the desk chair.

 

Shiro was like my brother in so many ways. He had black hair like my own and flawless eyeliner that even a pro would be jealous of. He got me into the Garrison after hearing me playing my trumpet in band class when visiting. Shiro and Adam are a known couple, and they are adorable. Shiro has a disease and will only be in peak condition for a few more years. Adam hates the idea of the Kerberos trip, a trip to spread music to places in poverty. Shiro, Matt, and Mr. Holt are going on the mission, despite arguments that Shiro won't stay well enough. Shiro was on that mission right now.

 

“He's what?” Adam looked me in the eyes via video conference. “His group went missing. They blame it on Shiro. I'm sorry to be giving you this news but I-” I closed my laptop and looked away from it. “Don't hang up on me Keith.” I sighed and snatched the red tie that was given to me by Shiro. “I was going to get ready for my performance. I make it or break for our school today.” I yanked a suit vest on and buttoned it over the tie. “Good luck. I know Shiro had faith in you. Make us proud, for him.” I tugged on some dress shoes and grabbed my satchel and trumpet case. “I will. What song should I do?” I left my hotel after brushing my mullet back and putting in a braid. “What was Shiro’s favorite song?” I bit my lip and thought. “Weightless. That song is eight minutes long.” my case dug into my hand as I rode the elevator down to the ground floor. “If you know it, play it.” I sighed once again and headed for the intimidating studio. “Yes, sir. Anything for my drum major.” I hung up and headed for the building that could have ruined my life.

 

#  A year later

 

Shiro showed back up in a Garla bus unconscious. He had some white hair and a fake arm when I snuck onto to get him. Of course, Lance also had that idea and ended up helping me carry him out. Then some big chase sequence, me showing the group a cave, us finding a ship, and now we are in a giant school called Arus Music School, with the mascot being a lion.

 

“Who are you?” Pidge, or as their real name was, Katie, was skeptical. Myself, of course, was eating crackers as I cleaned my trumpet. “You are so-” I loudly coughed to covered Lances words. “Sorry, crumb in my throat.” Lance glared at me as I smiled cockily. “I am Miss. Allura. That is my assistant director Coran.” I looked at them and my eyes flew to the marks on their faces and their ears. “You're not human.” I walked over to them holding my trumpet. “And that trumpet is from The Band of Mamora corps.” I held it's grip and looked her in the eyes. “It was my mother's.” I walked away and soon the group was in front of me walking somewhere. “These are your uniforms, you'll wear them when we perform.” “There's five of us. Not much of a band if you ask me.” I was being pretty snarky as I fastened on the hat. “Garla Private Academia took our students and teacher's lives in a shooting. We outplay them and beat them in competition, we close that school.” the others were convinced quickly unlike me. I hadn't gotten kicked out of the Garrison for being stupid. 

 

Turns out, we're in Europe now. Not a trip I ever wanted to take. Shiro seems… different. Quiet, nervous, anxiety. Garla didn't make him better, they messed up a perfectly good oboe player, that's what they did. Lance is being a complete prat, Pidge is busy experimenting, and Hunk was having a mental breakdown from the shock and how much of a mess it was. I was organizing and cleaning instruments in a dusty and old band room. Some of the books were from ten thousand years ago, but still in prime condition. I tried out most of the brass instruments, even the piccolo trumpet. Shiro came in for a few minutes only to walk out with no memory of what he came for. Yeah, definitely different.

 

“Director, what year do you think it is?” Allura had just walked in and I was already asking questions. “Twenty sixteen of course.” oh boy. “Ma’am, it's been ten thousand years since twenty sixteen. It's currently twelve thousand eighteen.” I set the book I was holding down and looked at her. “But that’s impossible, this school is so well known that it couldn’t be abandoned.” I nodded and gulped. “You said it yourself, the teachers and students were killed. Everyone outside the school said it was a gas explosion. That the students died from radiation. Walls were built around the school to quarantine the building. No has seen this building in thousands of years, it was basically frozen in time till we got here.” I wiped my hands on my stained, torn jeans and fixed my jacket. “I need to tell Coran. Thank you for telling me.” I nodded once again and went back to sorting the books, keeping one from the Mamora Corps to look at later.

 

Just because I played trumpet doesn’t mean that I couldn’t do other things. Like my father,  I had practice with a flag. I spun it like a bowstaff, cause why not. Pidge was in the corner working on some contraption. Lance decided to watch just to torment me, but of course, he was failing. Allura, for once, seemed impressed by my actions. I threw my flag up as high as I could. I flipped into some splits and caught the flag before it hit me, causing the taunts to go silent as I did another flip out of the splits without my hands. 

 

“And why didn’t you join color guard?” Out of all the dumb questions to ask, it had to be that once. “Why does it concern you, Alternate?” Pidge looked shocked as I sneered at Lance. “For your information, I got promoted.” “Because I got expelled for punching James hard enough to break his nose and give him a black eye.” “YOU WHAT?” I froze before running from a fuming Shiro. “I shouldn’t have said that.” I hid in the closet with my knees to my chin. “KEITH!” I curled up more and dug around for my phone. It may have been a flip phone, but it was light. “You in here buddy?” my palms dug into the wall as I held myself out of view by the ceiling.  “Explain.” Pidge looked at me after what I presume to have been three hours of hanging there. “I mentioned getting expelled when Shiro was present.” “Moron.” “I will fall on you if you don’t stop insulting me.” “Yes sir, Edgelord.” I let myself fall before I started chasing Pidge who had grabbed my red, white, and yellow jacket. 

 

“Is… Is your hair in a bun?” Hunk looked at me in confusion as I tried on my uniform. “Yeah, I was always told to keep my hair off my uniform collar. Normally at the Garrison I would just braid it and tuck it into my hat.” somehow, the helmet fit perfectly. “Hey, you get black gloves.” “We all get black gloves except for Allura and Coran. What do you play, I never paid attention.” Hunk chuckled as he tied back his hair. “I play sousaphone.” “Does suit you. But hey, you get a barrette.” Hunk adjusted the hat on his head as I zipped his jacket. Looking at each other we both said exasperatedly, “Gauntlets…” Apparently, we both hated those with a passion. “So, how’d you get stuck with Lance?” I was trying on a pair of marching shoes while Hunk polished a sousaphone. “Racists. They grouped up together because we both have darker skin. I have no idea how Pidge got stuck with us though. Pidge is a mystery.” I nodded and started tying one of the shoes. “I was outcast because I was an orphan taken in by Adam and Shiro. No one wanted to be my friend because of that and my habit to… Swing.” “I remember when we were younger, when James insulted your parents, I decided that I wasn’t going to be your enemy, but I was kinda scared to befriend you also. Lance was the reason I ever spoke to you, apologizing every time he screwed up and made you mad.” I sighed and stood up so Hunk could check me over. “Maybe if you had been my friend I wouldn’t have gotten expelled. You could’ve been my self-control.” Hunk laughed and gave me the ok. “If I was your self-control, I don’t think we would be here, hiding from Shiro because you didn’t have any.” He was right, we wouldn’t.

 

“We sound horrible.” “For the first time, I must agree.” we had the worst combination of instruments yet. Oboe, trumpet, sousaphone, percussion, and a flute. “Lance, do you play any other instrument?” he nodded slightly and looked away. “Trombone and saxophone.” his voice was softer than usual. “Don’t be ashamed, Keith plays a mean kazoo.” I glared at Shiro who was smiling. “Ok, shall I mention that when you lost your reeds, you played a recorder.” Allura looked so confused. “If you all don’t stop, I’ll use the cowbell on you.” Lance was scooting away. “Look, this is going downhill. I’m heading to the dorms.” following Hunk, I pulled my hair out of the bun and pulled off my jacket. “What are those marks on your wrists from?” I pulled my gloves up a bit higher to hide the splotchy red lines on my wrists. “It’s personal.” I looked away from him in disgust at my own actions. “Dude, if there’s anything you need to talk about just tell me. I’d rather we talk about it than let it keep going.” I yanked my jacket back on and slipped into the dorm I have chosen for myself. “They were just an accident Hunk.” Those cuts on my wrists were no accident, they were there for a reason. 

 

“I’m worried about him.” I hid behind the corner while they talked about someone. “His wrists… They had cuts in them.” they were talking about me. “Were they red?” “Yes, very splotchy. Probably on the fresher side.” Shiro looked worried. “He said they were an accident. Think they happened when we were on the ship?” Hunk seemed concerned as he spoke to Allura and Shiro. “The most we can do is watch his behavior.” “And his body. When I took him in he was extremely anorexic and had emetophobia. We need to have caution when approaching his issues.” Shiro spotted me as I turned away and left for my dorm where I locked the door and hid in the bathroom.

 

#  Hunks POV

 

Keith tried to hide the cuts for the rest of the month, but some nights I’d find him on the practice room crying, curled up around a trash can with the red splotches bright. Keith was hiding a lot more than anorexia, depression, and emetophobia, he was hiding being a whole nother level of different. Whenever he would swim he would wear a skin-tight tank top like thing, which Pidge informed me is a binder. Other times I’d see him in just a way oversized hoodie with his last name on the back. Keith was acting strange, and almost like Pidge once a month.

 

#  Keith's Pov

 

Before we go any further I should tell a story. Once, there were identical twins, a boy and a girl. The parents couldn’t tell them apart, but the little boy was very sick. One day, the little boy died and the mother left. The father knew not which twin passed away, and presuming the girl died, called the little girl by her brother's name as she grew up. Then when the child was seven, the father died in a fire, orphaning the little girl still called by her brothers' name. The girl decided that to save herself from questioning, she would become a male. By the time she was twelve, only she knew her secret, keeping it from all. But this change and loss left her depressed, suffering from anorexia and vitiligo. Her wrists were cut and scarred. She was adopted by a boy and his boyfriend. To this day no one knows her true identity. That story is about me and my twin. My birth name is Keara, not Keith. My brother died at the age of three days old.

 

“You paying attention Keith?” I didn’t respond as I gazed at nothingness. “Kogane.” I looked at Pidge before standing up and walking out. Yanking off my hoodie, I accidentally removed my shirt and turned bright red. “Why are you wearing a binder?” “No reason.” I slipped on my shirt and ran for my dorm where I closed the door and shrank down against the wall. “You can tell me.” I nibbled on my lip and opened the door slightly. “Why?” I closed the door once they were inside and looked at the floor. “There were once twins, a boy and a girl. The boy died but the father thought the girl was the boy. She was raised under the boy’s name and changed her gender after he fathers death. Only she knows.” Pidge seemed confused as I stood up and reached for my closet. “That story is about someone you know. You might not look at them the same.” I grabbed a dress and entered my bathroom. “What are you saying?” I changed quickly and stepped out of the bathroom. “I’m trans. I’ve never told anyone. Please don’t tell anyone, but my real name is Keara.” Pidge sighed and patted my shoulder. “So am I.” they left without another word leaving me in the semi-formal dress.

 

   “You’re quiet.” I fingered through a song as everyone else talked and laughed. “I’m busy.”  scribbling something onto a notebook page, I read through the music in front of me. “Ya like ja-” I punched Lance in the eye while scowling and left the room with all the stuff I was using. “Hey, Keith. Are you single?” I looked at Pidge with no emotion. “Actually, I’m taken.” “Really?” “Taken for granted.” I walked into an empty classroom and pulled a guard rifle and a baton out of my bag. “Here, try this on.” Pidge set an outfit in the room and closed the door. “How do I look?” Pidge pinned something into my hair an smiled. “Well, the red brings out your butt.” Pidge laughed as I tried to look. “Think you could perform for all of us?” shrugging, I gripped the white rifle in my hand and spun it around letting it roll on my shoulders. “Give me an hour or so to do hair and makeup. We’ll see.” Pidge chortled and left the room as I closed the blinds over the door's window and pulled out hairspray, a brush, hair ties, and a lot of makeup from the flag bag. “Make ‘em stare.” I opened the makeup and got to work in front of a small mirror. 

 

   “Would everyone come to the main gym now.” I hid in the corner in the darkness while everyone started walking in and sitting down. Soon enough, Pidge gave a thumbs up and I walked out in the full-fledged color guard uniform. “What-” Pidge turned on some music, of my choice, and grinned. On the first note of Welcome to the Black Parade, I tossed the flag and marched backward eight counts, catching the flag and twirling it as I did. Everyone was mesmerized as I worked through the song, gasping as I started doing tricks with my baton and rifle. “Keith…” I flipped and started running as soon as I landed, sliding and catching my baton as the song finished into the last pose of the song. “WOOOO!” I didn’t look at anyone as I lightly gasped for air. “Keith, where did that come from br-” I walked over to everyone and watched their faces as they noticed. “Keith?” I crossed my arms over my chest and walked out, feeling judged by everyone. “Lance, your nose is bleeding.” “He was in spandex!” I walked off as Pidge caught up. “So they are still clueless. No big deal.” I nodded and tugged on the letterman jacket I was handed as Pidge and I headed for my dorm.

 

   “Are you two dating?” I snorted soda out my nose and looked at Allura like she was crazy. “N-No. I… I mean… Only if Pidge thinks so.” Pidge was as bright as I was. “Well… Only if their sexuality allows it. Cause I think it’s time to say this… I’m a girl.” people, past Lance nodded. “Then that means that I should follow the lead. I… I was born a girl. I’m trans.” the table didn’t deserve so much snot and soda on it at one time. “Say who to the what now?” I sighed an sunk into my jacket. “I’m trans. My real name is Keara. Keith was my late twin brother. I transitioned when I was eight.” I basically seemed to disappear in my jacket. “Why didn’t you tell us?” I groaned and messed with my hair. “I tried dropping a hint when I was in the color guard outfit. I wasn’t wearing my binder. Nor am I now.” I stood up and went to sent my plate in the sink. “What was that tattoo on your back?” I sighed and looked at Shiro. “The wings waiting to unfold so I can join my family when I die. The only things that keep me going.” I walked away with my jacket around my waist, letting my wrists show after a month of hiding. On my wrists, I used my skin condition to make roses by the scars of past self-hate.

 

   “My name is Keara Kogane. I’m eighteen years of age, and transgender. I have no blood family left, my twin died when we were newborns, my father died when I was seven, and my mother is missing. I play trumpet and I work with flags, rifles, batons, and rapiers. My adoptive family is Takashi Shirogane and Adam W. I am currently the red paladin, a member of the Pride of Altea.” I ended the recording and sighed, leaning back in my seat. How was I supposed to make a record of myself, I barely know myself. Shoving out of the room in the rolling chair, I looked at Lance who was rolling through the hallway. “OH SH-” my chair rolled down the stairs leaving me sprawled against the wall at the bottom of the stairs. “WHAT WAS THAT NOISE!?!?” I let out a squeak letting everyone know I was alive. “KEITH’S CHAIR ROLLED DOWN THE STAIRS!” I heard Shiro facepalm as Pidge poked me with her foot. “KEITH’S NOT DEAD… YET.”  I squeaked again as Hunk hoisted me over his shoulder and carried me to my dorm room.

 

   “Hey, Lance.” I limped past Lance in leggings and a red and grey hoodie shirt with my hair in two french braids. “Hey, are you into guys?” I hoisted myself onto a wall and sighed. “I’m mainly straight as Keith, but I can also be straight as Keara. I’ll give you a chance.” Lance lit up as I hopped down. “See you at six, observatory?” Lance nodded as I headed for the band room where Allura was talking to a strange person. “Hello, Miss. Allura. Is there anything you need to be done?” she shook her head no, sending me and my trumpet with some music, to a practice room where I started playing through as calmly as possible. “She looks like one of our members.” I ignored the people who had come in to listen to me as I changed the music in front of me and sighed, before going into the piece, the Mamoran song I had found. “We should test them.” my eyes only opened once after the first note, just to check the key signature. “Where did you get that trumpet?” I stepped back as they threatened me. “It was my mother's.” I shoved them away and left the room, wrapping my hand around the purple grip. “Keith!” I walked out of the room and headed upstairs to put my instrument away. “What are you doing?” I closed the case and stood up. “Getting my flags and practicing elsewhere.” I left the room and grabbed the flag bag and some gloves from the guard room before heading for a gym. 

 

   “How do I look?” I stood in front of Hunk who was helping me get ready and let him look me over. “Go get 'em, tiger.” I smiled and headed for the observatory in a white and blue dress given to me by Allura. “Hey Lance.” he was in a blue dress shirt, a white vest, black pants, and a white bowtie. “You look amazing.” I blushed and looked away. “You do too.” he was redder than a tomato when I took his hand. “Do you know any constellations?” Lance replied no as I heard banging. “Hey, it’s fine. Stay focused on me.” Lances face started melting away as he spoke. I fell back and backed against a wall. “What’s wrong?” I tried screaming but nothing came out. “Afraid of love?” everything went black as he reached for my face.

 

   “Keith! Get up!” I sat up panting to Shiro banging on my door. “I’m awake…” my voice was weak, I must’ve been screaming in my sleep. I had dreamt coming out, dreamt telling Pidge, dreamt falling in love. “You were screaming. Is everything alright?” I didn’t make eye contact with Shiro as I opened my door. “Yeah, just I really bad dream, I’ll be fine. Sorry to alarm you.” I closed my door and realized I had been in my boxers and binder the whole time. Getting into the shower after stripping, I just stared at the wall while the water rolled off my back and hair. What was that dream, why did it feel so… Real. “Morning screamer.” I sunk into my jacket and walked past Pidge who was with her little security robot, Rover. “Is that a bra strap?” I shifted my jacket and kept walking, not even bothering to come out for real. I entered the library and hid behind a pile of books I would read and draw behind for the rest of the day. 

 

   “Found you. What are you drawing?” I quickly closed my notebook and set it out of reach of Pidge. “It doesn’t concern you.” my sneer was pretty sharp as I gripped my pencil. “I heard you mutter about someone being transgender.” I gulped quietly and picked up a book. “Someone I knew named Keara. It doesn’t matter, she’s changed her name now.” I opened the book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and tried to ignore Pidge. “What’s her new name?” I didn’t look up at Pidge as I read. “Keith.” I froze when it slipped my lips. “Keith huh, like you?” my face turned red as I tried to find words. “Yeah, we haven’t talked since I was eight though.” I went back to my book and tried to hide my flushed cheeks. “Are you trans?” the book fell to my lap after she asked. “Yes, I am… Katie Holt.” she sneered as I finished my sentence. “Do me a favor, be my boyfriend. I don’t want gushy romance and that stuff, and you probably can’t have children.” I was bright red by then. “Only if you don’t tell Shiro or Lance.” “Deal.” “Before you ask, that was the strap of my binder you saw, not a bra strap.” Pidge nodded and showed her own binder strap before snagging my notebook and looking at the transgender sign I drew. “Pretty good. Is this Shiro?” I snorted when she held up a picture of Shiro I had drawn and shaded while I was eating my lunch, a jar of peanut butter and some crackers. “Yep, it sucks as much as he does. And he’s gay.” Pidge snorted after I finished my statement, it was the most legit thing I’ve ever said. 

 

   “Is that Broadway dancing?” a smile spread across my face. “So Lancey dances Broadway?” he was red as I grabbed some pencils from a shelf and a couple notebooks. “It’s ballet dancing, star boy.” I rolled my eyes and went on my toes. “You weren’t the only one raised on dance, lover boy. The thing about me is that I was also raised on flags and jazz.” I flicked his nose and sashed out, letting my hips sway. “That was gay.” “I mean, dating you I’m technically gay and lesbian.” “Ah, life.” we laughed softly, heading for Pidges usual workspace. “So I’ve been working on a big project with Hunk and I think you’ll like it.” Rover buzzed around my head with happy beeps as Pidge spoke to me. “Allura and I have been talking and she has agreed to also let us fight. We both know that past such a high program, they are very violent and abusive to students, and captives, as seen with Shiro. It won’t be major fighting, but it’s fighting, and you get to use a sword and staff.” I smirked and leaned on the table. “I’m in. What will we wear?” Pidge smirked and hit a button. “These.” from the wall came glass cases with suits of armor in them, white plus another color. “This one’s yours.” she handed me the red and white once and put the helmet on my head. “Mine is the green one, Lance is blue, Hunk is yellow, and Shiro is black. Allura has said we are the Paladins.” I nodded and picked up a red thing Pidge called a bayard. “Woah.” it became a sword in my hand and I pointed it out. “Sweet, now, if you want to train with that sword, go through that white door over there.” I jogged through the door and quickly discarded everything but the sword. 

 

   We had been there for what I think was a month and it was killing me. All we’ve eaten is this ancient alien food slop, I’m used to eating meat. My stomach was killing me and I had been getting random dizzy spells. I don’t think anyone’s noticed, but I’ve been having hot flashes, losing my balance, even being more tired, which I didn’t find unusual, I’m always tired. Then the vomiting, oh how I hate vomiting. It reminds me of when I was young and living off of what I could find, afraid to lose my food. Pidge noticed but we dismissed it as a stomach bug. I only got worse, for an entire week I haven’t really left my room. My face felt hot, and it reflected red in my water. Everything seemed to be louder, busier. I tried to walk to my desk to grab my phone but fell unconscious just as Pidge opened the door. I hit the floor with a sickening thud according to them, I definitely believe so.

 

#  The next week

 

   I woke up with a huge bruise on my chest, and it felt like someone had sat on me. “You’ve in the pod for a week. You’re pretty malnourished.” Pidge was sitting on a table while Hunk held me up. “Dude, you passed out. You could’ve died.” I leaned against a wall and sighed. “The goo isn’t doing me any favors. Wait… Where’s my binder?” I felt my chest and panicked. “I needed to patch it up, it ripped while we were trying to get you the body suit. “W-Who knows?” Pidge and I made eye contact. “I know. We told the others you had a fever and that they shouldn’t go close to your room.” I took a sweatshirt, my binder, and some jeggings from Pidge and went to change. “Don’t tell anyone Hunk. It was supposed to be between my and Pidge that I’m transgender. I really don’t want Lance knowin-” Pidge kissed my cheek and laughed. “He won’t find out. Let’s go get you a protein pack from my snack closet.” I blushed a little making Hunk laugh. “That is also a secret.” Hunk nodded and started cleaning up the med bay.

 

   “Where are the others?” I was concerned, the concern increasing when I heard something like screams from Pidges helmet. “They’re in trouble.” I bolted out with a granola bar and jumped into the ship that was for me. “Keara!” I put on my helmet and flew for their location. “ARRG!” Lance was thrown against a wall as I showed up in all black, I had changed as I came. How were they being beaten by a girl in all white? “Who are you?” changing my voice, I concealed who I was also by wearing a sports bra and not a binder. “The person to kill you.” I launched at them and sliced their braid off to distract them before grabbing their throat. Yanking off their mask, I looked at their bright… Blue eyes like the ones Keith, the real Keith had. “Keith?” I dropped them and let them catch their breath. “It’s Keara, I haven’t gone by Keith since my sister died.” I yanked off my mask and hugged them. “Dad said you were dead Keith, it’s me, Keara. I was told you died so I went by Keith my whole life.” the person looked me in the eyes and hugged me. “I was separated from mom at the age of seven.” “Dad died when I was seven. Come back with me.” I helped my sibling up and walked them to my ship where we headed for the school. 

 

“Sibling, patience yields focus.” I guided Keara through the movements that I had made when I wrote the drill for the team. “I just fear your team will dislike me.” I sighed and looked at them. “They hate you, then they can hate me because I’m not leaving you again.”  I touched her face and sighed. “KEITH, WHO ARE THEY?” I pulled my bayard out and let it turn into a gun. “My sister, touch her and I’ll harm you without hesitation.” my voice returned to its usual feminine sound. “Is that Matt Holt?” I looked at Keara before sighing. “No, that’s his sister Katie.” “Then I’ll tell you this, Matt was my friend where we were. All I can tell you is he is safe an out of Garla hands. Can’t say the same for Mr. Holt, he is quite nice though.” Pidge looked at me for a second before replying, “Are you both trans and going by each other’s names?” we looked at each other before nodding. “Fun, we need both of you. One is singing the other can record and edit. We’re doing Daft Punk.” I looked at Keara and smiled. “Can we alternate?” Pidge nodded and tossed us some color guard uniforms. “Change fast.” we both started changing and walked into the recording area to start recording.

 

We sounded great. Lance had lost his voice from screaming too loud, and Pidge doesn’t sing, so I was the female part and Keara was the female-male part. No one suspected a thing when I didn’t have my binder on, and no one questioned Keara in a black wig and me in a white one. After the others left I was humming and cleaning up the recording gear. Picking up a violin, I thought back to the home and started playing. We had been forced to learn an orchestral instrument in our extra time and I had learned French horn and violin. I honestly had a mess of a childhood. From losing my whole family to entering that awkward limbo between male and female, to now, I just didn’t have time to live a normal life.

 

“I feel I must apologize. You see, Coran and myself have been lying. You all deserve to know the truth. Shiro, what you went through was rather exclusive to you, no one else had suffered. The truth is, you are all the first students to be brought to this school that is opening again after intensive repairs. Galactic hasn’t done anything, no one died. We made up that story to hide the fact that your school sent you away.” I gripped my flag and started walking towards Allura, only being stopped by Keara. “Then where’s Matt, Mr. Holt, THE OTHER STUDENTS?!?!” we lost Shiro. Walking out of the room, I saw people walking into the school. “Ew, people.” I headed for my dorm and closed the door after Keara was inside. “What now?” “I dunno, we forget each other exist and date people.” I nodded and looked out the window. “Maybe I should just leave and catch the nearest plane for Texas.” Keara patted my shoulder. “The Mamora have space in their school for us. Mom’s one of them.” I lit up as Keara held up a phone. “Yeah thanks, we ’ll be waiting for you.” a sly smile crept along their face. “Pack up, the helicopter is coming.” I grabbed some dusty suitcases from the closet and got to work.

 

“Hasta la later!” I climbed into the jet, the noise sounding like nails on a chalkboard. The noise only got louder as I looked at Keara who seemed to fade from existence. Everything became white and it was just us two. She looked at me, her face changing to be completely feminine, mine changing to masculine. She only said one thing before disappearing from sight.

 

“Find me, Keith.”


	2. A whole 'nother story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all are gonna hate me, I just know it. Warning, There is French spoken, maybe some Spanish.

#  Reality

 

   All that was just a sickening fever dream I had a bit after Shiro disappeared. Adam, who was taking care of me because of Shiro’s ‘death’, just gave me some medicine, my stuffed hippo, and a hug, and tucked me into my bed. I was never trans, I hadn’t dated Pidge despite wanting to, none of it happened, past maybe having a twin. Adam said that he doesn’t believe I have one, I would’ve been raised with them. After two days I had the ok to go back to classes, but I wasn’t allowed to talk.

 

   “Students, we have a new student that just transferred into this class. I want All of you,” the teacher looked at me as I gazed out the window, watching someone climb off a bus, “and welcome them like an old friend.” I gasped softly and watched as someone with white hair climbed off the bus and shouldered a bag. “This is Keara Kogane, she transferred from a piloting school in Louisiana.” I made eye contact with her and smiled, everyone in class caught off guard. “Let’s do a name game. You can write your name Keith and your answer down on a piece of paper.” the new girl walked over and sat behind me, smiling and waving as she passed. “My name is Keara Kogane, I have a twin brother who I was separated from at birth, I was told he goes here, and… I believe aliens are real.” I looked at her in awe and cleared my throat. “My name is Keith Kogane, I’ve lived in Texas my whole life, I too believe aliens are real, and I’m straight…” my voice got real soft at the end and Keara patted my shoulder. The rest of the class went through the process, then we went to lunch. “Keith huh? My mom said my brother was named Keith. And my father a firefighter who stayed in Texas with Keith. What about you?” I shrugged and nibbled on my chicken sandwich. “I never knew my mom and my father never said anything about me having a sibling. He was a firefighter, but died when I was seven.” she nodded and giggled. “You have moms eyes and hair.” I looked at her and shrugged. “I have a tendency to punch people.” “Well, there’s another similarity.” she started braiding my hair and tied in back, using bobby pins to hold my bangs back. “I can see.” she laughed and showed me a mirror, making my eyebrows raise.

 

   “Mr. Kogane, your hair.” “I can see, that’s what matters.” the teacher sneered as I sat down and pulled out my notebook. “Keith, your hair has changed color.” “That is Keara. My twin sister.” I waved to Adam who had come in to teach. “Oh.” he sighed and grabbed chalk. “The Kerberos mission was the least successful mission in Garrison history.” Well, there went that dedication to notes. “Three of the top pilots from this school went on that mission and lost their lives due to pilot error.” I looked out the window and put in an earbud, this was bologna. “Takashi Shirogane, Matthew Holt, and Samuel Holt were on that mission, and Takashi was the pilot in question.” I turned on my music and let drown out Adams' voice. Only once did I hear him choke on his words, and that was when telling the information of Shiro to the class for notes. “Hey, Keith, I don’t have dorm right now. Can I stay with you?” I nodded and showed her a doodle of Hunk, one of the kids in our class. “Nice.” I smiled for the second time that day, surprising myself.

 

   “So, what do siblings do?” I sat on the floor cross-legged and shrugged. “I could teach you how to fly a pod.” she shrugged as we got up and went to go on a walk in the hallway. “Hey! The emo kid got a girlfriend!” It was James, oh how I hated him. “Go away, James. I’m showing my Sister around the school.” he sneered and laughed. “Is that what your parents left you, a sister to fail with you.” I lost it. Swinging a hard right with my hand, I knocked James clear into the wall and bloodied his nose. “What’s going on here? KOGANE!” I looked at Iverson before taking Keara back to our dorm and immediately started packing my bags. “You don’t have to say it, Sir, I know I’m expelled.” “If he goes, I go.” “Sis no…” Iverson looked at us in rage as I glared at him. “Believe me, Keith, I stay here without you, and James will have more than a bloodied nose and a busted lip.” I nodded and let her grab her stuff before we walked out the gates together, only going back in to steal one of their heliobikes. “WOOO!” she was like a little kid as we rode to the house our father and I once shared. 

 

   “Bro, I found a cave! It has weird markings and such.” I followed Keara, who was wearing shorts, a tank top, and hiking boots to a cave, carrying my camera in my bag, and looked around. “Aliens.” we both laughed, that happened with us when we had twin speech. “There's a waterfall leading to a bigger cave.” “Wow, we found something good. And the radios are going crazy with the words blue lion.” I shrugged and took pictures, “We follow this til we run out of leads or we get something big from it.” we worked on getting sketches, pictures, and the location is written down. “Let’s head, we have a hike to get home.” Keara nodded and followed me out of the cave. 

 

#  A year later

 

   “Careful Keith, that guard is getting close.” Keara was being my seeing eye as I snuck onto a ship to snatch Shiro from the Garrison. About ten minutes later we had six people on two heliobikes, Shiro and Hunk on my bike and Pidge and some broke Cuban on Kearns. “Woah there Shiro… I got you.” Keara and I helped Shiro inside, us mainly supporting his body weight. Grabbing some of my father's old clothing, I gave Shiro something other than spandex to wear, also handing him some cream to help with the chaffing from that uniform. “Never got to ask this, what’s your name big guy?” Oh, my word Keara was cute. “Tsuyoshi Garrett. You can call me Hunk.” Tsuyoshi huh, nice. “Well, Hunk. Nice to properly meet you.” Shiro walked out in the clothes I gave him and rested his hand on my shoulder. “Takashi, I want you to meet my sister. This is Keara Kogane.” Keara held out her hand to Shiro and the Cuban took it. “She had your… Spunk.” The Cuban went flying across the room with a single throw. Pidge poked the Cuban and shrugged. “We might have killed him.” another shrug from everyone as I went to examine the pinboard covered in sketches, pictures, and conspiracy theories. “Guys, you have to see this giant beast we found.” Everyone followed Keara out of the house, myself locking the door behind me. 

 

   “Lance still hasn’t awoken.” Hunk poked him and got no response. “Keara what are you doing?” she placed her hand on a giant force field surrounding a giant blue lion. “It won’t harm me. I know it won’t.” she was humming softly as she ran her hand over the shield. “~Père tu peux m'entendre nous avons besoin de ton amour aujourd'hui Je sais que tu écoutes vous entendez Les Hommes tous les Jours. Père s'il vous plaît, écoutez-nous et nous serons ok père nous avons besoin de vous pour guérir Les familles aujourd'hui~” everyone one looked at me as I looked at her. “She was raised speaking French.” that was my excuse. “~Father can you hear me…~” Whatever she was singing, it made the shield come down. “Thank you, Mama, Papa.” she approached the lion and touched its nose, the mouth opening into its body. “Follow me!” again, people followed her into the tight cockpit. “Sis, your cheeks.” “Yours too.” “Aliens.” she turned on the beast, somehow, and flew it through the cave ceiling. The best pilot from Louisiana Y'all.

 

   As we flew I thought about all the dumb stuff I said in the last year. “You need a girlfriend.” “This ramen is my girlfriend.” that had me banished to sleep in the bathtub. “Sis, you’re being crystal queer.” punched and sent to sleep in the tree. “We should get a cow.” stared at for a full five minutes. “I’m thirsty.” thrown off a cliff into a small lake. Yep, I was dumb.

 

   Yadda yadda yadda, some long alien speech. “You two have Altean markings.” I touched my cheek then nodded. “I suppose we do.” Keara was very brave around this alien royalty. “I’ve never seen red or… rainbow?” I looked at Keara who was standing up straight. “You said we were paladins, but you never mentioned me.” she was right. “Keith has red marks and a red jacket, Hunk has a yellow shirt, Pidge has a green shirt, Mr. Shirogane has mainly all black on, and Cuban boy has blue jeans, sleeves, and eyes. I have rainbow marks, and all five colors on. I was able to pilot the blue lion. What does this mean?” the princess had seemed taken aback. “We’d have to test it, but you may be able to pilot all of them.” Keara looked satisfied as she fixed her boot socks. “I must ask, are you two related? You seem joined at the hips.” we laughed and looked her in the eyes. “We’re twins.” we walked away leaving the princess in shock and fear. 

 

   “Uno.” I placed my second to the last card down and made Keara laugh evilly. “Ok then. Uno.” she skipped me. “And I win.” “Ughhh, you always win.” “Wait to be quiet.” I started to protest and she covered my mouth. “The Blade of Marmora is very dangerous, and so are the Garleans.” Allura was speaking outside the door. Keara pulled her hood up for some reason and shifted a wrapped up knife in her sheath. “Sorry… Did you lick me?” I had covered her hand in spit. “We should go look at a training room I had seen.” she helped me up and led me out of the room, a glare pointed at Allura coming from her. “Why did you glare at her?” “Personal reasons.” Later I would learn we both had Maromoran blades and Garla blood. “Keara, Keith. Please come with me.” We obeyed, quietly following Allura. “Hey, Tsuyoshi.” Hunk waved as we walked behind her into a room. “Put these on. Shiro is going with you into the Mamoran base.” we nodded and grabbed the armor given, Keara putting a choker on underneath the collar of the suit.

 

   “Only two Paladins, we said three.” Two, but Keara was with us, by basic math that makes three. “Sorry, sir. I’m also a paladin.” from behind me I saw a mask disappear and Keara stand straight. “Sis…” Keara was wearing one of the Mamora uniforms. “Ah, Keara. The whole base had missed you.” she bowed and tucked her hair back. “Sir, we should test the one with the flippity hair, he has one of our blades.” Keara turned to me and held her hand out. “Brother, hand it over.” I handed her the blade as she pulled out one identical. “Twin blades, for twin children of a blade Member. Test him to see if he can reach this blades true potential.” she handed me the back the blade and sent me with some guards.

 

   “Beat my record. Then again I was five when I set it.” she was stitching up my cheek while I looked at the now sword in my hands. “Keara.” my voice was soft as I sat there. “Brother, I know what you're asking. We are Garlean descendants, but only by half our blood. That means dad banged an alien.” I snorted and let the blade go back to a dagger. “When you put in that viewpoint, it sounds weird.” Shiro walked in and ruffled my hair. “You did well Keith. I’m proud of you.” I shrugged a Keara cut the thread and sat by me. “Brother, while you were being tested, Krolvin spoke with me. He wants me to go back to the Blades. Would you be alright without me?” I looked at her in shock and sighed. “Do what you choose. I’ll still be your twin even if you do.” I extended my blade and watched her extend hers. “I’ll come back if you need me, but understand that the mission he is putting me on is in a Garlean base.” I nodded and hugged her. “I’m gonna miss having you put my hair in a bun.” she laughed and jumped down from the counter. “Don’t die. Either of you. Especially you Shiro, Adam still cares about your wellbeing.” she walked out and met with Krolvin, heading with him to a pod where she left with a wave. “I’m going to say this now when it was her and I we had a lot of dairy in our diets. I’m lactose intolerant.” Shiro looked at me in disappointment and sighed.

 

#  Thirtyish months later

 

   “Keith, I’m your mother.” This garlean woman was my mom. “Keara!” I darted past my mother and tackled someone who had my unmasked sister dangling by her neck. I was hardly strong enough to tackle this person, but my sister mattered more than the shoulder I dislocated in the process. “I-Idiot.” she hugged me as I whimpered in slight pain. “Keara… You’ve been here the whole time?” she nodded and helped me up. “We’ll deal with your shoulder later. We need to get out of here.” we followed Keara to a small cargo ship where myself and mother hid in boxes while Keara got us out of there. “Ok, hold still. This will hurt you Keith.” as she popped the shoulder into place I could feel fangs come and disappear in my mouth. “Sorry that I was hidden from you both.” Krolia, otherwise known as mom, was flying the ship as Keara patched me up. “No big deal, don’t do it again.” I tied my hair back and let my helmet form. “Let's get Fathers mission done fast.” “Father? Dads dead.” “She calls Krolvin father because he was her father figure. Who you call dad is her dad, she just refers to someone else as her father.” Keara looked out the window while cutting her hair with a knife. “I was raised by the entirety of the Blade. I’m not much of social person.” she got up and headed for the back where I heard soft music. “She learned the pan flute when she was young. I was very proud of her, and I still am. She uses it for her work.” I looked at Krolia and sighed. “Are you proud of me?” pure silence. “Extremely. I couldn’t be prouder. I have twins who are stronger than me as teens than I am right now.” 

 

   As soon as we were back to the Castle of Lions Keara had a plan. She was trying to get me to date Pidge. I mean, if it was between Lance, Allura, or Pidge, I would date Pidge because she’s intelligent and breathtaking in battle. Plus she’s really good with the lions. Then there was the Earth stuff and we were in the hospital wing of the Garrison after a long, relentless battle. Keara had gone missing after we were captured. Soon after her body was brought into the Garrison, almost dead. She had been found crushed under parts of Sendak's ship, only found from the flute playing echoing through the canyon.

 

   “Keara, please wake up.” my Altean marks, from dad, were glowing as I sat by Keara’s bed, holding her hand. “Keith, she may never-” I snapped my tear-stained face to Pidge. “You have your brother, your parents. She’s one of the few things I have left.” Pidge seemed shocked and placed her hand on my shoulder. “At least eat something. Even Lance is worried, and that never happens.” I nodded and let her lead me out of the room to the cafeteria, where I ate some rice and chicken, first real human meal I had had in a while. “Please try to rest and eat on a slight schedule. You’ll lose your touch at this point.” another nod as I sat by Keara and grabbed her hand. “Pidge, I’m doing this for Keara. Will you go out with me? I’ve found you to be like my stability.” Pidge slightly blushed and nodded. “Matt always said to find me a boy who will protect me but still give me my space. I think you give me plenty of space.” I laughed and smiled. Thanks.” Pidge walked out and squealed a bit as I closed my eyes while holding Keara’s hand. “Please.” I felt myself weaken a bit as Keara suddenly gripped my hand. “Sister…” she caught my falling body quickly. “You didn’t have to give me some of your quintessence. Idiot.” I fell asleep in her arms as she placed my head on her bed. “But I care for you Keara.” were my last words as I fell asleep to her stroking my head.

 

   “Remind me why this is a double date?” I tied my tie as Keara tried to choose what to wear. “Because I’m dating Matt. Pidge thought it was a great idea to double it up.” I sighed and handed her a black gown with some silver lining. “If I and Pidge don’t work out I call dibs on Axca.” Keara laughed and pulled on the dress. “Not if I get her first.” “Try me.” I heard mom laugh as I tied my hair back into a ponytail and Keara combed her hair back into a headband. “Bye mom, see you after our double date.” she stopped us and had us line up next to each other in front of the front door. “Krolvin and Shiro will be proud of you two. So would your dad.” she hugged us and sent us on our way. 

 

   The date was crashed. Somehow I ended up in the green lion with Pidge. Matt and Keara were in black. To cut to the chase, some big fight, ruined outfits, and we both got our first kiss. Cut to Shiro worrying about us, Krolvin speaking with mom, and the ladies with the guy's jackets over their shoulders. The only thing said was, “Next time, let's just stay in and watch movies.”

 

   “Nice saxophone.” Lance was watching me practice on my tenor during one of our breaks from talking about space. “Why are you watching me? Don’t you and Allura have something going on?” I looked at the broad-shouldered boy with sass. “No, she’s with Iverson talking.” he jumped down from the bar he was sitting on and walked over to me. “I’m sorry I was a prick. I guess I was just jealous that you got to be in space with your mother and sister and I didn’t get my family.” my tenor hung from my neck as I looked at him. “It’s fine I guess. I spent a long time in a home because even I thought I had no family left. Just don’t date my sister. She’s with Matt.” “What about you?” “I’m with Pidge.” “Oof. Do I have a chance?” “Keep dreaming.” “Bonito listo.” he walked away as I chuckled. “A ti tu guapo. La chicas te amo tu.” he blushed and walked faster. I only called him good looking.

 

   “Describe dad.” what a challenge, having been mainly speaking Spanish in the household with dad, I described him in Spanish. “Artístico, muy inteligente, organizado, serio, Trabajador, paciente, creativo, ambicioso. Alto, grande, muy guapo, Pelo Oscuro, Pelo Lacio, un bombero. Lo amaba mucho.” And I confused her. “He was artistic, very intelligent, organized, serious, hard-working, patient, creative, ambitious. He was tall, great, very good looking, dark, straight hair, a firefighter. I loved him so much.” I looked at the floor and sighed. “This was his saxophone. He played it for me every day.” I closed my eyes. “You would’ve loved him, sis.” I walked away carrying the saxophone in its case. 

 

   Pidge and I had our first argument. It was over what language is more straightforward. Iverson won by flipping us off. It was on that day that we decided sign language was the most straightforward. Then she went to coding and I went to tutoring. I’m smarter than I let on. I know that when Lance says Vol, I say Tron. I just act stupid to make Lance feel better. We’re all actually smart, the lions would teach us while we fought. Out of all of us, Shiro may be the dumbest, he died and didn’t get Lion's education. In all reality, it was the dead paladins teaching us. So I learned from Shiro and King Alfor. Pidge from the past green, Hunk from yellow, Lance from blue and Alfor, Allura from blue. King Alfor was very… Sarcastic. He wasn’t a huge fan of the half Garla stuff and wanted someone else to pilot red. So he got Lance and now begs to have me back. 

 

   The Garrison held a ball as a celebration for our work, and never have I ever looked so nice. “Allura, may I have this dance?” Ooof, Keara’s inner queer. I watched as both their very poofy dresses collided as they danced in the middle of the room, the backs poofed out to make up for the lost volume in front. “Since my brother isn’t willing, will you join me on the dance floor, Keith?” Veronica held out her hand to me, myself, of course, choosing to accept. “Let’s make Lance, jealous enough to dance with Matt or Katie.” she laughed as I escorted her onto the dance floor. “I must admit, you do look nice in that dress. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Katie, but she may never dress up like you.” I could see Lance getting red and grabbing Matt. “Here he comes to out dance us. Shall I spin you and make everyone awestruck ma’am?” Veronica laughed and looked me in the eye. “I don’t like it when you act all formal. You’re better with blades that you are ladies.” I rolled my eyes and spun her before whispering to lance, “You fell into our trap, Lance. We were trying to get out to dance.” I walked off with Veronica and led her to an instrument room. “Build a jazz band. We’re making this ball so much better.” Veronica grabbed an alto while I grabbed a tenor. “Shiro plays a mean trombone. Pidge is good with drums, Hunk can do guitar. Find us a trumpet and a baritone player and well be playing till someone finds the cow Lance got in space.” Veronica looked at we and went to do her mission. Never question the cow.

 

   “We’d like to welcome to the stage the new Admiral of the Garrison. They are quite young, no older than Mr. Griffin, one of our amazing pilots. Would Miss. Keara Anavee Kogane please come to the stage.” Keara stood up in shock and walked toward the stage where Mr. Holt guided her up the steps and to the podium. “I must say, this is quite a surprise. I didn’t even know that I was even an option. Thank you to Mr. Samuel Holt for all the help he’s been to the Garrison in this time of new war. We lost many soldiers, including people very close to some of the paladins and pilots.” she looked at Shiro for a moment before continuing. “Someone close to myself, Keith Kogane, and Takashi Shirogane were one of many of the loses we thought we had and he is proud of our coalition. Now saying that I will be doing my best to fulfill the needs of the people, and my students. Also saying that I will also add this. Commander Iverson was the man who kicked my brother out of this school so many years ago, and now he’s working with me.” she walked away from the podium to laughter as Iverson sighed loudly. “We have all made bad choices that we later regret, that might be one.” Keara took her seat by me and smoothed her dress. “I guess I am staying here with Matt. I love you, Keith.” I nodded and walked away with Pidge, Lance, Allura, and Hunk. 

 

   “Nero… Come.” Nero was the name given to me by Krolvin after a battle, apparently, Keith was too bland for the Blades. Only in times of dire need had anyone in my family called me Nero, and this was one. “Where are you going?” Pidge caught me entering black at the last second. “I got a shotty signal from the Garrison calling for me to come. Knowing that we fixed signal problems, I have a feeling that they are in trouble, including the Blades. They used my blade name.” I fully entered and took off without warning. “I’m coming with, my family is at the Garrison.” and with that, Pidge and I rushed for the Garrison in our flying lions. “She’s on that cruiser.” Mr. Holt sent us rushing for a cruiser that he thought had Keara.

 

   “Keara…” I saw her from across the bridge, she was tied up and unconscious, or so I thought. Suddenly, where her closed eyes were, I saw bright yellow eyes and a daring move. “KEARA!” I darted forward towards where she was panting with her eyes closed. She saw me and lit up. “Oh brûle en l’enfer, thank zut that you came… I was scared that if I did that without an ally close I would get killed by one of the generals. I kinda lost control in there, I’m sorry Ke-” “Shut up.” I took off from the exploding ship and was relieved to hear no talking. Only after five minutes of only hearing my own breathing did I look back and see her slumped against some boxes unconscious. “PIDGE IM MAKING A U-TURN!” I flung the lion around and rushed for the Garrison instead of the planned meeting spot. “I’ll tell Commander Iverson and my father that you’re at the Garrison.” I bit my lip and almost crashed into the empty spot by the Garrison as I landed. “GET HELP! ADMIRAL KOGANE HAS GOTTEN INJURED!” someone took her from me as I ran in. Matt could tell I was scared, his strong comforting embrace let me know that. 

 

   Pidge towed Black back with her while I stayed to do what Keara couldn’t til she hopefully recovered. I had been listening to audios from her shuttle when I heard her voice. “Goodbye, mission control. Thanks for trying.” then I heard Iverson. “Keara left, a flag came back.” Tears hit the papers in front of me with a depressing splat. “I’m going on this mission to give the MFE pilots a chance to live without risking their lives. James told me it was a bad idea, as much as he hates Keith, he doesn’t want to see Keith in a time of loss.” dozens of drips fell from my cheeks as I listened to her last audio. “I’m still going, yet Matts words ring in my head with a constant reminder of this choice. It was what Adam said to Shiro, “Keara, what do I mean to you?” the door opened with a smooth soundless sound. Iverson walked in as I set the recorder down and leaned back in the chair. “Commander, why did you let her go?” my voice cracked slightly as I looked him, this was the most vulnerable he had ever seen me. “I didn’t. She left on her own accord.”

 

Shiro took the job of Admiral after Keara disappeared and I snapped at someone. I was on the edge of town waiting for Allura to get me when I heard a young voice. “Are you a ninja miss?” a little girl tugged on a masked ladies wrist and looked at her. “What do you mean young one?” “Are you a ninja? Do you do cool attacks and stuff?” the young lady giggled and looked the girl in the eyes. “Of course. And if you want, when you’re older you can be one too.” the girl lit up and spun around. “I'm an orphan, this is great news for me.” the lady sighed and picked the girl up. “Then I'll adopt you and take you with me.” the lady walked into the orphanage where she took off her mask and promptly adopted the girl. “Come, our people need us.” the lady made eye contact with me and smiled. “Always remember. The Blades are always family.” She winked and jumped onto her motorcycle, driving away before blue landed and Allura walked out to meet me. “That uniform looks good on you.” I was wearing a black suit with an orange tie and a cloak, one of the more formal things in my suitcase. “Thanks…” I followed her and Kosmo onto the lion with my bags and settled down in the cargo area. 

 

“Hey Kei-” “Va te faire foutre.” “What?” Lance was confused as I had told him to f off in French. “Lance, Keith is in a bad mood, let's leave him alone.” Hunk, the voice of reason. I was in a really bad mood because of events of recent. “Keith, why is Hunk avoiding you?” I didn't even acknowledge Pidges question. “My sister's comatose body went missing and I was told to ‘get over it. You're a grown-up.’ She was all I had, my control, my voice of true reason.” I went to punch the wall, Pidge catching my fist. “We'll find her. You helped find Matt, I'll help find Keara.” She patted my back and pointed to my room. “Go take a shower and calm down a bit. Hunk was on the ceiling when he was in the hall with you.” I nodded and headed for my room, Pidge had a way with words, or maybe that was the Bayard in her hand if I refused. “What did you say to Lance?” “Let's just say it wasn't too appropriate.” “Ooof, swearing. You've reached a new level of making Lance mad.” Pidge chuckled as I entered my room and tossed my jacket onto its hook.

 

“Now where are you going?” Allura stood behind me as I loaded a small bag into a pod. “Pidge’s birthday is tomorrow so I was heading out to get some stuff for Hunk to make a cake.” Allura nodded and climbed in by me. “I’ll go with. I want to get her a present.” I nodded and closed the pod, taking off quietly towards the nearest space mall. “Allura stay here, I’m going to check out the commotion.” she placed her hand on my shoulder and told me to listen. “We are holding Admiral Kogane for ransom or for the Voltron lions. Come to get her.” cue swearing and booing. “Allura…” she made eye contact with me. “If you think you can.” finally, I had her support. “Let’s get the stuff and head to the new castle. Then I’ll go.” she nodded and held up the bags of gifts and supplies. “Let’s go. Keara needs you.” we ran back to the ship and took off, somehow I ended up in the cargo hold, holding a robot that we bought. “Come back in one piece, or with as many pieces of you as you can. And your sister. Good luck boss.” I jumped into a shuttle in a trenchcoat, boots, jeans, and a high necked tank top. “I’ll need it. Make sure Pidge has a good birthday.” I closed the ship and again, took off in a different direction for the cruiser holding my sister.

 

I marched out with my sister's unconscious body, stumbling every few steps. Keara was actually in better shape than I was, she didn’t have holes about her body and a cut on her cheek. I put the ship on autopilot back to the new castle, my eyes were too blurry to drive. I was in much worse shape than first anticipated. Probably would’ve died if I had actually faced the generals. I managed Keara into one of the castles healing pods and tugged on the pants of the healing pod suits. Finding a way to close the healing pod myself, I put myself in one as well. I saw Hunk come in as I closed my eyes, oh how nice it felt. 

 

“Rise and shine Keith. You’ve been in that pod for a movement.” I rubbed my head and sat up with Hunks help. “Week huh, Blades come to check if Keara and I were dead?” Hunk chortled and shook his head no. “Keara woke and is piloting black. The Blades did send a uniform, it is rather feminine though.” I shrugged and sat on the edge of the metal table I was on. “Bring it to me, and some compression shorts from my room.” “Dude, heels.” “Even better.” “Whatever you say.” About ten minutes later I was dressed and strutting my stuff. “You’re just trying to kill Lance. Have fun with the Blades.” I walked out in the heels and everything, my hair up in a bun. “Just getting my stuff while I wait for Krolvin to get me.” “And Lance is out. You’re taller than him now.” “Would you prefer if I flaunt my legs?” “You might take someone else out from blood loss. I can hear Matt turning red.” “I can see your butt in amazing detail.” Ah, castle conversations.

 

Despite Hunks thoughts on the matter, the skin tight uniform was actually very tactical and easy to move in. The heels made astonishing weapons when kicking, helmets were dented and heads removed. There were new girls, sixteen-seventeen at the most. Their accents were heavily laid on their words, half the time I couldn't understand the Scottish one. But they all had alien blood, Okari, Garlean, whatever Acxa is, something with wings, and a possible Altean descendent. All quite pretty and smart for Keara. To Krolvin, I am still a child. 

 

“Don’t wake him, he is but a kit.” I was dozing off against Krolvins arm as we headed back from a recruitment mission. “I’m awake…” it came out as a mumble as I tried to sit up. “Rest, we overworked you.” Krolia smiled as Krolvin laid my head against his arm. It was true, they had me running errands for forty-eight hours straight without rest. “Keith, for once, don’t fight back. The girls are asleep as well, there is nothing wrong with sleeping in the ship.” Krolvin was actually comforting as my eyes slipped shut, betraying me. “I’m glad that you lived… Father.” my mouth was also betraying me as I fell asleep to Krolia and Krolvin talking.

 

I retched, it burned my throat. That was my reaction to being kissed against my will. I'm anti-romance and bird girl triggered my gag reflex by kissing me. Now if I get kissed and I’m willing, it can be amazing, but if I’m against it, my body will fight back. I punched the girl and left her with a nasty scratch on her arm by where she was holding my arm. Krolia wasn’t happy with my reaction to the kiss, but Krolvin said it was slightly justified. I stayed away from the girls, past Acxa, for the rest of the day. She and I got stuck on training duty, young Garlean rebels were out trainees. One of them took to calling me Akira, I didn’t care, they were young and Akira is a nice name. There was an emergency on a nearby and everyone but me was on the pod. I was on a bike based off of something I saw in the castle, my mask having been improved a bit to avoid suffocation. Cue fight sequence, astonished trainees, defeated enemies, and the battle was short, like Arusians. 

 

“Checkmate.” I was panicking so much. Acxa and I were playing strip chess. To explain, every time one of our pieces left the board we removed an article of clothing. I only had my boxers left while she had a tank top and compression shorts before she reached undergarments. “This was your idea.” I quickly took out three of her pieces before her next turn. She turned around to strip, even more, turning back to me with his chest bound and no pants on. “Battle to the nudity.” we glared at each other and laughed. “What would your girlfriend think?” “She’s the one who taught me this game.” I was being snarky as she set herself up to take me out. “I win.” I took out her last piece and smiled. “You don’t actually have to fully strip, I don’t care.” I pulled my pants and boots on, heading for my room. “Nice abs.” Hunk walked past me calmly. I forgot about the meeting, people are gonna see me shirtless. “When you thought he couldn’t get any hotter, you see his abs and fall deeper.” Pidge pinched me as I walked past. “Lance is gonna die when he sees you. Go get ready for the meeting.” I jogged to my room and looked at the uniform I was supposed to wear. How about something else. I pulled on a back suit and a red tie, using a tie clip that Hunk had made for all of us for the first diplomatic meeting. Combing my hair back on slipping on some dress shoes, I left my room while putting on my glasses. “Fix my cuffs and eyeliner.” I quickly did my eyeliner with a couple quick flicks of the wrist and put on some cufflinks that I had Hunk make for me, the blades symbol. I used my back to open the door as I walked in adjusting my cuff.

 

“Sorry that I’m late, I had to take a quick shower.” Lance, who had been flirting the Okarian girl, looked at me and turned red. “Don’t you look spiffy.” I took my seat next to Acxa and started writing down notes. Allura started talking about a restoration and recruitment plan that both sides could work on. “It is a concept. What do you think Keith?” My time to shine. “You did cover most topics, but what do we do if a planet refuses out help. Some of us come from more strained relations. How would we avoid the remaining Garla who are against us from getting in saying they’ve changed sides, and infiltrating our defenses? What is the protocol if one of us gets injured in this process?” Allura looked defeated as I questioned. “And what do we do if someone wasn’t paying attention during this meeting?” I looked at Lance who froze. “Busted.” I folded my hands and looked at Allura. “Well, if a planet refuses our help we keep the offer up but move on the next planet or area. We will find a way to avoid infiltration, even if it means refusing entry to Garla people. Both sides have healing pods and Earth on our side, we let the person recover and someone else fills in for them till they are fully healed. As for attention spans, I’ll work on improving those.” I smiled and looked back to Krolvin. “Any further concerns Sir?” “None. You covered everything I thought of Keith.” I nodded and closed my black notebook. “What about existing members who were in the Garlas forces?” I chuckled and looked at Pidge who asked. “I already tested her.” “With what?” “Strip Chess. If she was planning on infiltrating she would’ve found a way to cheat or injure me while I was unarmored. She could’ve kept a weapon under her clothes, but she didn’t. Any loyal member of the Garla would’ve refused to play such a game for a child or an imbecile.” Pidge nodded and seemed content. “What a concept.” I set my pen down and looked around. “Is that all the questions? If so, shall we move on to the meal?” People started standing up to get food while I smoothed my hair back. 

 

“Since when did you have glasses?” I stopped mid-bite and looked up. “I was losing my sight before I was kicked from the Garrison, my eyes are pretty bad. So when I was filling in for Keara the Garrison hooked me up with some glasses. For missions I just wear contacts but I figured this was formal enough for glasses.” I put my fork in my mouth and looked around, freezing as I saw Shiro, who had come for the Garrison. “Sam was right, I am blinder than him…” Hunk laughed as I sighed. “What Keith? Do I have food on my face?” I shook my head no and set my fork down. “How do I put this…” I started moving my hands while I formulated, “This is my first time seeing your face clearly since the before the Kerberos mission.” Shiro raised his eyebrows as I stood up and took my plate to the kitchen. “I’m basically trying not to flip out every time I look at someone.” I looked around again till my eyes fell on a girl with short blackish purple hair. “Keara, you look lovely.” she smiled and shrugged as she shifted in her seat, holding Matts hand under the table. This was how things should always have been. 

 

The peace never lasts. “Keara please calm down…” I was trying to calm Keara who had gotten in a big fight with Lance, bigger than any I had been in. “STAY OUT OF THIS!” she cut my arm with her… Claws. “KEARA SNAP OUT OF IT!” I smacked her with my good arm as hard as I could, her freezing and looking at me. “I… oh god what have I done…” I surveyed the damage. A couple of broken bones, some scratches, Kosmo hiding behind Shiro. “I… I’m sorry…” she broke into a sob on the floor as I tried to find feeling in my clawed arm. “Shhh… You were just angry. It happens to the best of us.” Hunk nervously approached and started looking at my arm. “A healing pod can’t even fix this damage…” his whispers made me nervous as I let my sister bury her face in my shoulder. “Bad news… that won’t heal Keith.” I sighed and kept a hold on my sister as she held onto me. “We’ll figure it out Hunk.” my voice was soft as I lifted Keara to my shoulder with my now, only good arm. 

 

“Thanks ‘Llura.” she had managed to be level-headed with removing the dead arm and stopping the bleeding. “It is no trouble, Keith. You most likely saved Lances life.” “But at what cost? I’m down an arm and I have people to help.” I sat on my knees and tried to fix my hair. “You and Keara could switch places. If you have a strong enough bond with the Black lion they may surprise you.” “Black is a she.” Allura looked confused as I said that. “For the longest time I thought Black was a he, but now that Shiro is no longer even compatible to be her paladin, I can feel her true nature.” Allura seemed intrigued. “We are really close to Earth, we, Keith and I, could go with Shiro to Earth and get Keith an arm.” Pidge tied my hair back and sat in a chair next to me. “It’s a deal. Take the green lion.” we nodded as Pidge yanked me off the floor. “Go change while I pack and get green ready. Just ask Shiro for some help if you can’t effectively get a shirt on.” I sighed and went to change into proper clothes, Shiro's usual look becoming my own for the time being. I mean, the clothes were my dads anyway.


	3. Is this what you came for?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During the typing of this chapter, there was a video taken. I am stuck in the look of looking up behind a handsome boy now.  
> Yes, there is slightly choppy Spanish, I use Grammarly and it hates Spanish.

#  A month and a half later

 

“You look so grown up Keith.” Shiro shook my new hand and patted my back. “You look great with rainbow hair.” Shiro chuckled. We had dyed the underbelly of his hair faded versions of the rainbow. “Thanks, boss.” I smiled as Pidge came up the ramp. I looked for Matt for the signal, he had the video call established on the green lion's shield and all of the allied groups were watching. “Katie Holt,” Pidge spun and around to me on one knee, “Will you make me a lucky man, and marry me?” I had only told Matt of my plan. Now Lance can’t accuse me of trying to hook up with Allura. “Keith… Why the quiznack wouldn’t I? Of course you big dork.” I lifted her up after slipping the ring that looked like vines, with emeralds for leaves, onto her finger. We weren’t the most lip locking couple, but we did it anyway. “I love you Pidge. You made me a better person.” she laughed in my ear as I spun her around. “You are a bigger goob than Matt.” “You know, he’s watching.” I pointed to the shield as she covered her mouth. “I’m smarter than I look.” she picked me up and spun me, Shiro laughing as I looked panicked. 

 

“I did not see that coming.” We had been helping the Okari get rid of the last few Garla soldiers on their planet when one of the Okari had approached me. The had taken my fake hand and upgraded it for me in a matter of seconds. “Hey, no fair! How come Keith gets the cool arm?” I yanked the arm off and handed it to Pidge who had started fangirling over it, stacking dead soldiers on my shoulder. “Because I kept my sister from killing you. By all means, we could turn back time and let her kill you, but then I’d still be mopping up your blood.” my sarcasm wasn’t appreciated. “Lance, please give him a break. You’ve constantly given him grief about what he does and has. He lost his arm to his twin sister. You should just be glad neither of you came out dead.” Hunk was defending me? “You don’t have to defend me Hunk, I’m fine with the torment. I have someone who at the end of the day, will make sure I’m not dead.” Pidge looked at me as I loaded the last soldier onto my shoulder. “Where do you want these?” one of the Okari pointed to a small pit with a pile of dirt by it. “Ok, will do.” I started for the pit and dumped them in, covering every layer with dirt as I went. 

 

“My dearest friend, if you don't mind, I'd like to join you by your side. Where we could gaze into the stars and sit together, now and forever for it is plain, as anyone can see, we're simply meant to be.” Pidge gazed into my eyes as I took in the whole scene. “With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never be empty. I will be your wine. With this candle, I will light your way in the darkness. With this ring, I will ask you to be mine.” Lance was my best man, Allura, Pidge’s maid of honor. We locked lips after hearing the words, “You may kiss the bride.” from Shiro. He wanted to be the one to say it, lifelong dream Y'all. She was in a light green, flowing gown while I was in a black suit with a red tie. Both of us had our hair braided with a ribbon in it. “Dude, were those Tim Burton vows?” Hunk knows how nerdy we were, he always knew. “Yep, it was Matt's idea.” Mr. Holt chuckled as we passed, hand in hand. She wasn't going to let me pick her up.

 

The Space War was over finally. The Garrison deployed recovery parties to help instill endangered places, myself being one of the troops. Our job was to clean up the mess in Hawaii. Pidge stayed at the Garrison with Matt to work on technological stuff. She was working on getting technology close to the lions for protection units for each city. We dismantled each dead soldier and put the separate parts in boxes to take back to Pidge for tinkering. Talk about a wedding gift. I almost fell into a volcano, but something saved me, I don’t know what, but I woke up about five yards from the top. As I was going back to Texas, I got a text from Pidge. I won’t say what it conveyed, but Lance and Shiro wiggled their eyebrows when they read it.

 

“Are we sure about this? I mean…” “Your father boned an alien, Matt has boned your sister. I’ll live. Now let's play some poker.” I better not go into detail, Pidge my kill me if I do. I’m the man in that house and if Pidge wants to do something, we will do that cause I’m the man and I’m not scared that my wife will use her bayard on me. Ok, yes I am, I’m absolutely terrified of her bayard touching my bare skin. I don’t have a policy in my life insurance that covers electrified bayards and do you realize how awkward that would be to explain to my in-laws and Shiro?

 

#  A year or so later

 

“Aww, she’s so cute.” a little baby girl, my little girl. Yeah, that’s what Pidge texted me about, she surprisingly wanted a child. Little Katelyn Akira Kogane-Holt, that's what we named her. She had dark brown hair with purple streaks, yeah, mom was happy, purple grey eyes, and my skin color but slightly darker. Everyone was fawning over her, my precious princess. “Good job Keith, you have a family.” I couldn’t help but smile, that was my biggest goal, to have a family. “When I say Vol, you say Tron. Vol.” “Tron.” Lance looked at me in shock as I placed my hand on Pidge’s shoulder, to tell her I was still there. “Lance, I’m glad we met. The war would probably still be raging if we didn’t have you if we didn’t have all of you.” Inspiring speech time. “Can I trust that when the universe needs Voltron, you’ll answer the call?” nods and yeses from many people as I looked at them. “Keith, I know you just had a child, but the Garrison needs an expert space explorer for our next mission. Honestly, I’d as all of you, but we can’t leave children and jobs unattended.” I looked at Pidge and sighed. “Sorry, I can’t. I’m a firefighter, I can’t just leave. Why don’t you ask the better pilots, Lance, Allura, and Hunk?” “Oh so now I’m the better pilot?” “Red wouldn’t let just anyone pilot them.” Lance looked shocked as my phone went off. “Oh, sorry to leave in a rush but the crew needs me. Call you later?” they laughed as I grabbed a helmet, once my fathers, and ran for my truck. “Don’t melt your arm?” I laughed and sped off while tying my hair back sloppily.

 

“What did you do?” one of my partners, Evander, or Evan for short, had slightly tugged on my hair as we finished up at the fire site. “Your hair was on fire.” I sighed and dunked my head in a bucket of water and shrugged. “So, how's the wife?” We climbed into the firetruck and got into conversation. “Well, while you were on the sunny beaches of Florida we had our first child,” Evan looked shocked as I drove. “Congrats, what’s their name?” “Katelyn Akira Kogane-Holt. She’s adorable.” Once we were at the station I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture. “You and your wife are heroes, you have a gorgeous daughter, great friends, is there anything else I should know, oh, a giant lion, a fake arm, and a cool battle scar.” I glanced away, not sure if I should mention my blood. “My father was a firefighter and my mother… nevermind. People might not like her.” I climbed into my truck and put the heys in. “Wait, Texas Kogane was your father? Awesome. Please tell me about your mom.” I bit my lips and looked away. His family was still POW-MIA and I didn’t want that blood to flow. “It really doesn’t matter. I might be out for a while, I’m still running missions for the Garrison.” he nodded as I drove off and sighed. Being Garla on Earth wasn’t an easy task. 

 

“Pidge, I’m going out on a mission for Iverson. Can you handle being alone with Katelyn for a couple months?” she nodded as I fastened my Garrison Voltron shirt. “Stay safe. Kate needs her dad.” I smiled and kissed her cheek before running out and climbing into the hummer that Matt was driving. “See you soon!” I waved to Pidge and watching her slowly fade from my sight. “Did you bring contacts?” I nodded and laughed. “I came from the station. Of course, I have contacts, I don’t run into fires with glasses on or completely blind.” Matt chuckled as I tugged on his chin. “Is this a goatee I see? A braid as well?” he sighed and looked at me. “Oh believe me before we go I’m going to be tied to a chair and separated from my chin hair. But first, we need to grab Keara from her place.” I smirked and watched the scenery go by. “I want to propose but I’m scared she’ll turn me down.” I looked over at Matt and patted his shoulder. “Go for it Matt, you’ve got this.” I handed him the box with the shimmering engagement ring from the glove box and looked him in the eye. “You’d know if she didn’t want you anymore, Axca was her next choice in dates.” he nodded and parked in front of her house, climbing out as I climbed to the driver's seat. “What, Y'all will be making out the whole time. I better at least let us get there relatively on time.” Matt rolled his eyes and knocked on her door, getting on one knee. I heard about twenty yes’s as they got into the back seat and started kissing. 

 

“Do you know Evander Keys?” I was helping a woman and her children out of a cell in one of the prison blocks from the war. “Yes, I work at a fire station with him. I will get you home to him.” I picked up about three children and guided another two to the ships we were loading the prisoners onto while she held a small child and followed. “Get some food and clean clothes, I’ll be back out in a little bit.” I ran back into the building like it was on fire and my family was in there. As I entered an untouched block I got shot in the shoulder, knocking me back. “You little-” I sliced the shooter, a Garla robot, in half not realizing my eyes had flashed yellow. “You’ll be fine. Follow me.” “You’re one of them.” “No, my blood is cleaner than theirs. I won’t hurt you, please, follow me to the shuttles. We’re taking you home.” Matt came to help, having heard my yelp from the floor he was on. “I’ll take it from here, go get some medical attention for that shoulder of yours.” I shook my head no and picked up a little girl who was limping. “No, the people who are being rescued need the medical attention. I’ll let them go first.” the little girl held onto my neck as we were brought down on a lift. “That’s should be the last family.” “I’ll go in to check for more and end the rest of the robotics.” Matt tried to stop me as I sent the little girl with Keara and headed back in. Probably an hour later I came out and faceplanted from how many injuries I had.

 

“Good job Keith. You saved my family.” my joints were stiff as I came around. Evander was sitting by my bed as I looked around. “You have a concussion and a pulverized shoulder, but after the replacement, you should be fine.” I grabbed my glasses and put them half on, unable to get on side in past the bandages. “Well, good to know I screwed myself up.” I sat up a bit and groaned a little. “How’s my daughter?” “Just fine. Want me to go get Katie?” I nodded and sighed as Pidge came in with my bouncing, bubbly, baby girl. “Thanks again man, I don’t know what I would do without you.” “Die in a fire? I’ve carried you out like twelve times.” “Funny.” I took Katelyn from Pidge and smiled, she was the same, but her old man was having issues. “They had to cut your hair a bit, the blood dried in it.” “No more dead ends.” “Smart Alek. I missed you, Keith.” Pidge hugged me and looked at my scarred shoulder. “Hopefully that doesn’t affect you in bed.” “I’m leaving now.” Evan walked out and went to see his youngest daughter who apparently had a broken leg. “I came back didn’t I?” “Yes, you did Admiral Keith Kogane.” “Oh no, a promotion. How horrible.” Pidge laughed and draped my Garrison shirt over my shoulders. “Get dressed. You have a meeting to attend.” I sighed and looked at my arm. “What, did Y'all have an Okari on hand when giving me a new left arm and shoulder?” she nodded as I stood up. “Fancy.” I headed for the bathroom and changed into my uniform, Pidge combing my hair back and helping me put my shirt on. “You look amazing.” she kissed me as I looked at the fact that I only had one sleeve. “Think Shiro will be jealous?” all I got was an eye roll as I tied my shoes and followed Pidge out of the room.

 

“Overall, was the mission a success General?” I had gotten to the point of standing with how much Iverson was avoiding answering. “You were there Admiral.” “I was injured and unconscious. Answer the question General or Mr. Matthew Holt would be glad to replace you.” Iverson exhaled and finally answered. “Yes, mostly. One family is still missing…” He went quiet and looked away. Oh gosh, his family was still missing. “Sam, is there any more places that prisoners would be?” I sat back down and patted Iverson's back, I felt bad. “There is one cruiser on the outskirts of Arus. It could be holding many prisoners, human and alien.” I hit a button to call Shiro. “Captain Shirogane, how close to Arus are you?” I kept a fully professional face as I looked at my seemingly older brother. “About a month away. Is there something we need to do on Arus?” “Yes, there is a Garla enemy cruiser that may hold prisoners, I need you to check it out ASAP.” I wasn’t going to be the reason that Iverson became depressed. “Yes Sir, Admiral Sir. Captain Takashi Shirogane out. Lance would you stop torment-” I ended the call and sighed. “I will not stop till they are found, General.” I dismissed the meeting and felt Pidge touch my shoulder. “We will not stop. My mother said that she can babysit.” I nodded and stood up, my arm feeling tight as I walked away.

 

#  Two years later

 

“Again! Again!” Katelyn bounced on the piano bench next to me as I laughed. “Alright, Kitty Kat. I'll play it again.” Pidge, who was very pregnant with our second child, was sitting on the couch programming my new communicator for work purposes. “She really loves the piano. Maybe you could teach her how to play.” Katelyn was obsessed with lions, Pidge reading from her journal and me giving my daughter sketches of green and black..” She was right, I could have taught Katelyn piano. “Maybe when her feet reach the pedals.” “You reach the pedals, she just needs to reach the keys.” I sighed and placed my daughter in my lap. As I did so I heard a soft yet sharp exhale from Pidge’s direction. “Is everything alright Katie?” I looked over my shoulder to peek at her. “Yeah, the baby is just causing a fuss.” My heart started dancing in my chest. “Should I call Sam?” I set Katelyn on the bench and walked towards Pidge. “Hate to say it, but just take me in.” I had been through this before and it still scared me to death. “Hey Matt, call your dad and tell him to go to the Garrison hospital wing. They’re coming.” Matt gasped and yelled for Keara to start the car. “Keith, we’ll be fine.” I picked Katelyn up while Pidge made her way to her car, climbing in the passenger's seat. After fastening Katelyn in and myself in, I pulled out and started rushing for the Garrison, about a thirty-minute drive in good weather, but a sandstorm? I couldn’t see too far and didn’t see the boulder until it was too late. “NO!” I wrapped myself and Katelyn and held Pidge back with my arm as the car crashed. “Matt, send an ambulance. The big boulder on the west edge of the city.” 

 

I sat patiently waiting for the ok to see Pidge. It was just some scratches but they had to remove a piece of metal from her leg. I shouldn’t have reacted to brashly, she was early into her third trimester. “Admiral, your wife wants you.” I picked up Katelyn and walked into the room with my very major limp, my leg had gotten trapped under a seat as I held Katelyn and Katie waiting for help. “Keith, I want you in the room this time.” Matt took Katelyn out so we could talk in private. “They have to induce labor so they can make sure the baby is alright and you weren't there for Katelyn's birth.” I was in a burning building, my mistake. “Then I'll be in the room. I just want us to be okay.” She sighed and leaned into her pillow. “Now we wait for the doctor.” I nodded and let a nurse wrap my head and hand me an ice pack. I had a small concussion but I would be fine. No one warned me that both of us were absolutely exhausted and some numbing meds would knock us out. 

 

Lance had brought his one-year-old in the next morning. I talked to him while Pidge slept and told him what happened. Apparently, Leonardo fell out of his crib and dislocated his shoulder. Oof. He chose to be by our side while Pidge was in so much pain. Hunk ended up there with a pie and stayed cause Pidge asked him to stay. The whole paladin family was there. And the family got bigger by two. 

 

“Olivia and Malakai Kogane-Holt.” didn't expect twins, but I love them both. I had a big happy family,  and I loved them. After their birth, nothing really happened for eight years, thank goodness for some sleep. Then the next problem happened.

 

“Sir, your daughter has cancer.” I dropped my phone and covered my mouth. “oh gosh…” I had been Skyping Pidge and she heard. “T-Thank you for telling us. Am I allowed to take her home for treatment?” the nurse nodded and handed me a clipboard. “You'll need to give her some time before you leave, but it's fine to take her home.” “If I may ask, what type of cancer?” I reached for my phone that was by my foot. “Bone cancer.” I froze and Pidge looked at me. “She will survive. She's our daughter.” I nodded and grabbed my phone, hanging up before standing up to see Olivia. “Daddy, what's wrong?” I wiped my eyes and sighed. “I love you, Livy.” I kissed her head and held her to my chest. “Daddy?” “Sweetheart, you’re gonna need to be strong. You have cancer, you might lose a lot. I can promise, you’ll never lose your family though.” Olivia clung to my shirt as I held her. “Pinky promise?” “Double pinky promise. I cross my heart.” she hugged me as the nurse came in. “She is allowed to go now.”

 

We kept taking Olivia for treatments, but she never really got better. Then the next accident happened. Somewhere in a space quiche, some galra were hiding and they took Olivia like they did Shiro all those years ago. Black and green weren’t responding to Katie and me, then Malakai and Katelyn walked in. They were the new paladins of our lions. We found Olivia, but they gave her the Shiro treatment, her arm was gone and she had a scar, but hers was on her back. Fight scene, and then we took Olivia home to stay. The next year Pidge got a distress signal from the Okari, and that’s when we found out we were no longer paladins. Lillian took over Allura’s job, Elijah was blacks, Olivia greens, Leandro blues, Katelyn reds, and Hayden yellows. Malakai, Lillian, Hazel, Katherine, and Elizabeth stayed on Earth to continue their Garrison studies While Macyn went to another school. Clarification, Lillian and Leanardo are Lance’s, Macyn, Hazel, and Katherine are Keara’s, Hayden is Hunk’s, and Elizabeth and Elijah are Shiro’s. We all struggled without our children, lucky Malakai and Olivia were really intelligent and managed to create a seemingly impossible to break communication link, so we were able to group up and talk every few days. 

 

“Why can’t you use your uncle for this?” Malakai was bench pressing me. “His butt weighs too much.” I heard Pidge spit out her twelfth coffee from his words. “Don’t you have to swim in like five minutes?” he nodded and set me down, pulling his uniform on and smiling. “You got my looks and strength but your mother's sass and brains. You’re rigged for perfection.” he laughed and put on his glasses. “And that’s funny, cause I’m asexual.” he walked out with his bag as I looked at Pidge who half choked on her coffee and looked back at me. “Did he just come out?” “There isn't even a closet in here.” I heard a loud groan from the next classroom, Lance was the person it came from. “You are horrible.” He was the swimming instructor and had been grabbing his whistle and the pool noodles. “You married an alien.” “So did Pidge.” “I told Malakai to throw you in.” He walked away grumbling that I still had my son. “Your child isn't in space with one arm and anorexia.” He froze and looked at me. “Malakai is doing what he does so he can go with Shiro in the Atlas and be a space explorer like you and Matt.” He turned red and ran off for the pool. “Mr. McClain, please stop running in the halls.” I heard a crash, he tripped.

 

“GO MALAKAI!” The state champion swimmer for Texas was Malakai, and he learned from his favorite Godfather. “he is so flipping cheeky.” Malakai saluted us while doing a backstroke and still was winning. “THAT CHEATING SON OF A QUIZNAKER!” Allura was worse than me, and that was surprising. Malakai went from first to last because a competitor tried drowning him. “please recover. Please.” Malakai quickly launched back into the race and somehow passed half the swimmers. “MALAKAI KOGANE-HOLT IS RACING FOR THE LEAD AND HE HAS IT!” he pulled it off last second with his hand, his non-dominant one. “WOOOOO!” Allura and Coran were very into swimming apparently, and Lance looked so uncomfortable. “he's limping.” one of the doctors led him to a bench to look at his ankle. “He pulled a muscle catching up but he'll be fine before the next competition.” Lance helped him over and I hugged Malakai despite his state of being soaked. “Good job Kai. You surprised us again.” all of his friends, aka all the children in the palafamily, cheered for him. We were happy, even the space family had watched via telecommunications. 

 

I should give a quick description of Malakai, Hazel, Katherine, and Macyn. Yes, my three nieces and my son, my daughters will be later featured. Malakai's full name is Malakai Yorak Kogane-Holt, he’s five eleven, aka taller than his parents, he has some alien to him. Soft, black into purple hair, freckles, brownish grey eyes, pointed ears, and broad shoulders. He’s slender and muscular, wears glasses, and his hair is pinned up ninety percent of the time. The triplets, Hazel has brown hair, alien features, one yellow eye, one brown eye, two garla marks, semi-thin waist. Kathrine has hair like Malakai, green eyes, one mark, thicker frame than Hazel. Macyn has black hair, blue eyes, one mark, thinnest waist of the three. Malakai, Hazel, and Kathrine go to the Garrison, while Macyn takes after Keara and attends Louisiana Tech Military Piloting and Boarding school, LTMPB or LT for short. Macyn is the most professional and able willed pilot, and she teaches Malakai in her free time. All great and able-bodied kids and I’m saying that from Iverson's perspective because they’re all Kogane-Holts or Holt-Koganes.

 

I had been watching cadets in the simulator as trios while off duty but on call. “I’m going to throw in some engine problems, see how the mechanic does.” Iverson typed something in and made a fake engine problem from the group in the simulator. “Who’s in there?” I had been doodling on my notebook page that I was supposed to be taking notes on performances on. “Malakai, Katherine, and Cole.” decent group, Kai the pilot, Kathrine the programmer, and Cole the engineer. “Cole, get that engine fixed please.” he was struggling with the engine. “The scanner says it’s fixed but it’s still smoking.” Malakai stood up and let Katherine take over as the pilot. “Make sure we don’t crash.” Kai sent Cole to the front and pulled out his wrench. “Wait, this isn’t broken… It’s overheating. Pass me the coolant.” he put some coolant in and waited a few minutes. “Get behind the seat. Now.” the other two hid behind the seat after being told to. “Why must we-” Malakai tried to cover his face as the screen went black. “What did you do?” I stood up and let me stuff fall as I rushed to the dashboard. “The system malfunctioned, I tried stopping it, I-” I ran out of the room and started prying open the doors of the simulator while telling people to call an ambulance. “Kathrine, Is everyone alright?” she shook her head no and held up an unconscious body. Malakai took the blast. “No… No!” I skidded down and took him from her, looking at the medics who had just arrived with stretchers. 

 

“Please, God, don’t take another one of my children.” I was crying, true crying, on Malakai's bedside as he lay comatose. His left arm and left eye were wrapped up, that's where he took the most of the blast. His right hand had bandages but not as many as it could have had. Pidge wasn’t in town but wouldn’t be too happy. Katherine had a few cuts and Cole had a broken arm, but I still worried about them all. The Garrison took the blame for the explosion, poor wiring, but that wouldn’t help my son recover. “Uncle Keith, he will survive. He’s the strongest person I know.” Macyn managed to fly in from Louisiana to be there for me. She was in her school uniform still, all green except a bright red and purple feather in her hat. She and Malakai were close, they always were together. We called them Kai and Kaia.”Thanks, kiddo.” she hugged me and sat on a stood by me. “We’re Koganes and Holts, we stick together. Ohana means family, and family means no one is left behind.” They loved Lilo and Stitch. “No no no, don’t cry, don’t cry. Nooo…” she hugged me as tight as she could while I let some tears fall again. “No one is left behind.” she nodded as I squeezed her. “I meant to send this for his birthday, but I think now will work.” she pulled from her bag a large back blanket with Ohana on it. “He loves this quote and I thought he’d like a quilt with pictures of the family.” I looked closely and realized every photo was a part of the Ohana or the heart around it. “Here. I carefully took the blanket off Kai, seeing his ankle brace and sighing. “And there.” we covered up to above his waist with the quilt and nodded. “Ankle? They said it was his top half.” “Pulled a muscle at his last swim meet. Then fell down the stairs to the guitar room later that day. Sprained his ankle badly.” she snorted and smiled, a rarity from her time out of state. She truly had her mom's looks.

 

#  A couple months later

 

“Macyn, your hair…” she touched her freshly shortened hair and smiled. “I felt I was being too uptight and figured what better way to show change than a haircut.” Malakai, who was putting in his contacts, laughed. “I like it. Definitely shows how identical you and Katherine are.” we were on a well-needed vacation after Malakai had recovered from the accident, and the whole family still on earth was there. Malakai had splotches up his arm and a thick scar over his eye, his pupil being a bit lighter and closer to making his eye pure brown. All of us had matching tattoos, of course, the Voltron V somewhere on our arms. Malakai’s was on his upper arm and Macyn’s on her left wrist. “Kai, Kaia, smile!” Malakai looked over his shoulder as Macyn posed for a picture, a definite keeper. They laughed and took a picture of my horrible tan, including the band-aid tan line. “Alright peace.” Pidge snickered right before we heard loud engines roaring… Like lions. Voltron was back.

 

“Dad!” Olivia and Katelyn tackled me, all of our space children running towards their parent. “Malakai… Oh my gosh…” Katelyn ran her fingers over all the marks from the explosion. “I’m so proud of you trooper. Tell me you won the world championships.” Malakai gulped and bit his lip. “They let me fill in for him. He was still recovering from an accident at the Garrison including an explosion. But yes, we won.” Kaia leaned on Kai’s good side and smiled. I looked over at Lance and froze, he was crying as he held his daughter close to him. “Hey Lance, think you call up Mama Rosa and tell her we have five thinner space cadets that could use the old Cuban mom cooking treatment?” he smiled and laughed, I couldn’t stand seeing him cry. “Y-Yeah, for quiznaks sake, that's what happened when we came back from space.” He was laughing and that's what mattered. “Remember how skinny you were? She tried pinning you to a chair to make you have more than muscle on those bones sharpshooter.” Hunk laughed as he held his half breed daughter in his arms. 

 

“Want to know why I was scared that my children were in space?” Lance and I were sitting on the porch of the shared beach house our families had. “Yeah, sure.” I was watching the waves crash against the shore melodically. “Lillian has sickle cell anemia. I wasn’t sure what being in space would do to her. Normally she would have her dog to alert someone, but her dog was on Earth with Allura and me while she and Leonardo were up there.” I nodded and looked at him. “I guess I was lucky enough that Cosmo went with Olivia. When she left she still was battling bone cancer. Now, she seems so much happier. So does Lillian. Like all their problems were gone.” Lance looked at me, if I was gay, I probably would’ve fallen in love with his eyes when we were space. “That’s because of something magical. We went through a wormhole and were in another dimension. They were able to cure Lillian's condition. I’ll let Olivia tell you tomorrow about her recovery.” Katelyn handed us popsicles and sat between us. “Where’s Malakai?” Malakai had said he would join us. “Macyn fell asleep on his chest. If you listen you can hear him singing.” she smiled as we silent to hear him singing. “He got your voice.” I opened my mouth just to close it. “Go to bed, we have glorious tales of the lions to tell in the morning.” Katelyn ran her hands up our backs while standing up and walking inside in a floral skirt and crop top to compliment her abs. “She’s right, we need sleep, and unlike Pidge, Allura will drag me to bed.” “I dunno, Pidge can be feisty too.” We walked inside towards our separate rooms where we both passed out on our beds.

 

“What’s that clicking?” “I dunno, I thought it was my mind pranking me.” “I just thought Sam was using my brain as a computer again and forgot to turn off the sound.” we all looked at Shiro as the clicking kept happening. “Morning.” Malakai entered the house and set the car keys by me while holding a cup of coffee. Everyone groaned, he was wearing his ballet joke hoodie. “Why must the apples be on the top shelf?” I spun around a saw Olivia reaching for an apple on the counter. “Your leg, and your arm…” she laughed and grabbed a bright red one. “Yep, new arm and leg. No more cancer.” Malakai smiled and sat down on the counter. “Guess it cost her an arm and a leg- Owwww.” Olivia smacked him as hard as she could and huffed. “Livvy, don’t hit him. Iverson tried blowing him and Kathrine up a few months ago.” Malakai pursed his lips and sighed, why did we keep mentioning that. “Ok, let’s stop mentioning the obvious changes and get along. We already missed our flight.” Olivia lit up with excitement. “Does that mean that we get to take the lions home?” Her joy was contagious. “Yes, it does. Go wake everyone up, we should get going.” I grabbed an empty water bottle and headed for the door. “What are you doing?” “Getting some of the sand. I promised a friend of mine I would get his son a bottle of dirt for his collection.” Evans son was autistic and it was a deal we made with him. Every place we go we have to get him some dirt from it. “I did something like that. I have bags of dirt from every planet we went to. Even-” Lillian made a sign to cut it out towards Olivia. “Even planets in the other dimension.” I could tell what she meant, Altea. 

 

“So, did you six have a catchphrase?” Katelyn seemed to restrain laughter. “Yeah…” oh I was scared. “Lillian, why don’t you?” Oh no. “It’s actually a song.” Oh quiznak. “~We. Are the gays in space. We always find a way. And if you think we can’t, we’ll always be called gay. That's why the universe calls on us. Elijah, Lillian, and Liv. And Leo!~” I was out, laughing very loudly and trying not to fall over. “That is so much better than ‘I say Vol, you say Tron’.” Shiro wasn’t speaking as he bit his lip. Then Shiro lost it, like full blown snorting and wheezing. “What-” I leaned over Katelyn and whispered in her ear, “He's your gay uncle.” Lance knew what I said, all the old paladins knew. “We need to make that an actual song.” Katelyn nodded and bit her lip as Elijah took over driving. “What are you doing?” she chuckled and entered the cargo hold. “I want you to meet someone.” my only thought was she got a lover. “Meet Talia. She snuck onto Red and decided to stay with me. She’s from what Leo calls the mixed blood reality. Everyone wanted her dead and she faded from the scene to the degree where Slav said she makes a bigger effect in this reality than her own.” I squatted to look at the little girl with Altean marks but Garla teeth. “She has a crown.” “Slav said she was meant to be a princess but is better as a war general.” Talia let Katelyn pick her up and have her on her hip as she watched the landscape. “Why?” Katelyn's mouth was a small, tight frown. “I wanted to give her a chance to change her story.” she walked to the cargo hold and stayed there for the rest of the flight. 

 

“Yes, thank you for this amazing opportunity. I’ll be there in a day or two.” I listened to my eldest daughter as she talked on the phone with someone. “Oh, dad. Did you want something?” I closed my mouth and looked her in the eye. “Are you really leaving again?” she looked away as her mouth became a thin line. “Louisiana offered me a job as a teacher. I’m moving down there with Leo and Talia. Leo has already talked to Tío Lance and Tia Allura and they are fine with it.” I kept running Takashi’s advice through my head as I tried to form words. “¿Qué hay de tu Madre y yo?” Hit her with her own language. She learned Spanish first, not English. “Papá ... quiero ayudar a estos Estudiantes. Pensé que entenderías eso.” I heard Malakai groan, then my phone rang. “Mamá Rosa, Estoy ocupada Ahora mismo. Puedo hablar más tarde, quizás pase Cuando Haga que mis Hijos dejen de correr riesgos. Sí, traeré a Olivia an almorzar en un mes. "Sí, adiós, Buenas Noches.” Katelyn walked out with her bag in frustration. “Papa, give up. You done goofed.” I was a failure of a father. 

 

Setting a bag on Katelyn's bed, I looked at all the pictures of us together. “I’m sorry Kate. I shouldn’t have said that.” leaving her room, I pulled out my phone. “Mama Rosa, I can’t bring Olivia or Malakai over for a while. I need to help my family. I hope you understand.” I got some yes’s then hung up, then sitting a computer in my office. “It’s what you’ve always wanted to do.” Pidge placed her hand on my shoulder as I looked at a website. This was a choice I had to make. Become a doctor or stay a firefighter. “I’m going to do it. I need to be a better example for our children.” I started filling out an application to med school, a dream that Shiro actually ruined. Swallowing, I sent the application and leaned back in my chair. “Classic, always working.” Katelyn walked out with her bags as I darted for her. “Katelyn… I… I’m proud of you, I really am. I guess I never gave up my old ways of being myself. Promise you’ll come home for Malakai and your sister's graduation.” “Can’t, I don’t know when Macyn’s graduating date is. I promise that if they are only a few hours apart I will book it and floor it for Kai.” I smiled and hugged her. “I love you, Lyn… I know I can be the biggest donkey most of the time.” she laughed and set her bags in her trunk before heading for the driver's seat. “Bye Daddy. I’ll call.” Talia waved bye as Katelyn drove away. “Ok, before you start crying have some peanuts and coke.” Pidge knew what I needed, sweet and salty weirdness that Matt got me hooked on during our Garrison days.

 

#  Two years later on Christmas

 

“Think she’ll come home this year?” that was the looming question as we cooked and got all nice looking for Christmas. “Leo hasn’t called either. Think something happened?” “Macyn would’ve called.” “Fair point.” I tied my hair into a bun and washed my face. “She’ll show up. I know it.” Pidge went to get the Christmas lights on as I fixed my scrub top. “Someone just pulled up!” I rushed for the front door to greet the newcomers. “Uncle Keith!” Macyn hugged me tightly and turned my back to the door while rambling. “Dad.” the two unison voices made Lance and I look at the door. “Surprise.” we could barely believe our eyes. Each of our oldest children was holding a baby in their arms. “This is why I didn’t come last year. I was in the hospital. Macyn kept it on the down low for us.” Lance and I took our grandchildren into our arms and looked at each other. “At least it was you.” I patted Lances back as I looked out the window again. “Oh no, Mama Rosa is here. Protect me, I’m only a second-year med student.” I handed the child I was holding to Shiro and Lance handed the baby he had to Hunk. “¡Mis Hijos! ¡Mira lo flaca que eres! ¡Tu debes comer!” Not the cheeks, anything but my cheeks. “There goes my diet.” Pidge knew how much work I was putting into my frame, now Mama Rosa came and is going to make me eat till I need new scrubs. “M-Mama Rosa, I need to keep my figure, I’m a med student.” I started backing away as she took off her shoe and held it up. “I-I-I’ll eat.” I manage to squeak out as she hit me it the arm with it. “Never say that again.” I shrunk down, the scariest thing ever is a mad Cuban mom. “I’ll get us back on the military diet for a few months to take this weight off.” my figure mattered to me more than you’d think. When the nights are empty at the hospital we do a runway show and I look good in heels and little black dress with fishnet. “Get me in on it too, I’m getting back to work at the hospital and I’ll need it.”

 

Food was good, had me on the floor in a food coma when my pager beeped at me. “When do I want to be a resident? January or February?” “January.” I pulled myself off the floor and yanked a hoodie on. “Then I shall see you when they let me out.” I walked out of the house with my truck and groaned as I started the engine and drove off for the hospital. “Why did I sign up for Christmas Day? Oh right, I didn’t think Rosa would show up.” I pulled into the hospital and ran in, changing from flip-flops to running shoes. “We paged you ten minutes ago.” “I had a Cuban mom at my house and apparently I’m too thin for her.” I fixed my socks and clocked in. “Proud of you. You’ll be a resident by new years.” “That's the goal.” I tucked my hair into a surgical cap and followed my partner. “What are we doing?” “ Childbirth.” “I haven’t studied that.” “Learn on the job.” I sighed and entered the room while gloving up. “You’re the one doing the birth.” I flipped my partner off before sitting down and examining. “Oh, here we go!” Merry Christmas.

 

“Who are you?” My first day as a resident and no one recognizes me. “Anyone see Dr. Kogane-Holt?” I walked over to the person asking and smiled. “Yes?” they seemed confused. “Hey guys, Keith’s wife sent a video from yesterday. Let’s watch it.” I chuckled to myself and sat by them. “I’d like this cut.” I hadn’t shown the picture for wow factor. “Is Mullet cutting it off? Holy cow!” Lance seemed confused. Cue gasps as they tied the hair back and shaved it off at the bottom of my hairline. “Holy chicken butt.” we had reached the point of the hairdresser cleaning up the cut and doing highlights in my long section of hair. “Keith, what the heck?” In the video, I held up the ponytail and smiled, about two feet of hair gone. “Eye doctor?” I think people were getting the hint. “Oh, new glasses.” I rolled back and stood up, grabbing my clipboard and looking at the scheduling board. “Wait, Keith?” I turned around and waved. “What do you need?” my eyes must’ve glittered as Lance looked at me. “You actually shaved off the mullet.” I nodded and put my hand on the back of my neck. “Yep. I actually like this haircut.” I headed for the elevator, there was a broken arm on the next floor up, and I wanted to be the doctor to do the cast.

 

“Shiro, I am in the middle of a shift, why are you calling me about Voltron and the Atlas?” I paced the break room while working on my then current case. “Elijah was shot by aliens looking for Voltron and the Atlas.” “Then shoot the alien and bring your son in. You can do that right?” I set the clipboard down and rubbed my face. “Ok, I shot the alien. Sam said to bring both.” “OK, BRING THEM IN!” I was too frustrated with this. “Chasity, can you take this case? It’s almost done. I NEED DOCTOR McCLAIN! WE HAVE A FUN CASE WITH ELIJAH SHIROGANE COMING IN HOT!” Lance came skidding in and fell over. “I’m ok.” Tell me the case.” “Elijah was shot by an alien, so Shiro shot the alien and is bring both to our little corner of Texas.” he groaned and sighed. “I like the haircut by the way. I’m calling Keara. We need more help with alien weapons.” he pulled out his pager and beeped for Keara. “Great first day as a resident with some power. Confused everyone and now I get to deal with alien gunshots.” Shiro came running in with Elijah while Lance ran to get the alien. “Takashi, I want you to sit in the seat till I get back. Hear me.” “When can I see him?” “‘Yaint seeing him till we get him fixed up. Y’all, make sure he doesn’t move.” I walked away to follow Keara and Lance leaving Shiro sitting in a seat waiting.

 

“Listen, unless Doctor McClain, Doctor Keara, or any other doctor decided to drop dead tonight, don’t page me. I’m going to be in Louisiana and I hardly think I’m going to get back in time. Ok?” some nods as I shouldered my bag and left the building. “Have fun visiting Katelyn alright?” Lance ran out behind me to wave me off. “Get on Lance. They’re your granddaughters too. I have an extra plane ticket anyway since Pidge is already there.” he jumped on behind me and held on for dear life as I bobbed and weaved through traffic. “Hey, Lance.” “What?” ~~“wE~~ ~~Had A bONDinG MoMENt. I CrADleD yOu iN My ArMS!~~ ” his laugh was so pure. “Maybe next time we have the whole group together we could play mass Monsters and Mana. I hear your character was pretty cool.” Lance nodded and smiled. “I didn’t know that you drew.” I looked over at him as he opened my sketchbook. “Some of those were from space. Then after Katelyn was born I started drawing my family and different things I would see.” I had forgotten about the sketches of the old Paladins, including the very detailed Lance. The others were well drawn but the drawing of him seemed a bit more so detailed. “Wow. This is pretty good. And the Lions as well.” I had spent days just drawing the lions and the uniforms in different styles, my favorite was the cracked helmets and dusty uniforms with flowers growing from them, a different flower for each paladin. “How come you sucked at drawing on the game show?” “Have you ever tried drawing in less than thirty seconds?” “Fair point. Hey, why don’t you draw me?” I shrugged and grabbed my pencil and a different sketch pad from my carry on. “Hold still, and don’t be a meme. Wait,” I put my stethoscope around his neck and put and pen and pad in his hand, “Perfect, I don’t care what you do on the pad, just hold that general pose.” he started drawing while I sketched, shaded, outlined, and did line art. “Tada,” holding up the pad I beamed. “Nice, this is what I drew.” He held up a highly detailed rose with droplets and shading. “Art buddies.” we fist bumped and chuckled as we realized our knuckles were then covered in ink. “Oops.” 

 

“~Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the Fates' design. Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine.~” I didn’t think Rapunzel was real till I met Talia. Now I tend to believe a lot. “How?” it didn’t make sense. “In my reality, we get what this reality calls powers when we turn five. I chose to heal, it was Olivia’s idea to use my hair and that song. Normally royals go with wealth, mind control, or popularity, but I wanted my ability to be useful in war.” Talia was something else. “Dad! Behind you!” I turned but not fast enough. I didn’t get hurt. “What-” Talia was holding the attacker off with some sort of shield. “Desaparecer.” the shield and attacker disappeared. “What did you do?” “This.” she formed a small glowing bubble like what had surrounded. “Implosionar.” the bubble crunched down and disappeared. “I made a force field and put the attacker in it, then I made it implode. That person never existed according to files now. I didn’t just choose to heal, I chose the trades of war.” I was impressed and scared. “If we go to war, I want to be on her side,” Lance spoke the truth there and only the truth. What came next was a mix of high memories and a video that was taken.

 

“How soon till I die?” I was high on anesthesia and cradling a broken arm. “You’re not going to die.” Lance was laughing his butt off and recording as well. “I see a light.” Lance seemed to be dying. “That’s the overhead light of your bed.” Katelyn looked humiliated. “Is that Pepsi?” Lance fell over laughing. “Keith, you can’t have carbonated drinks yet. Don’t you dare reach for that bottle Keith Kogane-Holt, I swear you touch that bottle and I’m busting your lip.” I did not yield. I did wonder why my lip was stitched and sutured. “I warned you.” Pidge swung and my lights were out for a whole hour. Next thing I knew I woke up and grabbed the Pepsi without regret. “Keith I flipping swear to Shiro's right arm.” I think at that point I was just being a troll after Lances own self. “Why’s Shiro doing flips, huh?” I also think the doctors were having a better time than me. “Ok, you’ve caused your wife enough problems. I’m putting you back under.” Lance was still laughing as I passed back out. In hindsight, I was higher than Mount Everest.

 

_**Now that you’ve fallen in love with my story,** _

_**let me tell you what really happened with my life.** _


	4. Chapter 4

Reality

 

After the fall of the empire and Voltron no longer being needed, we all went our different ways. Lance went back to his family, Hunk opened a restaurant, Shiro went back to teaching, Pidge became a Garrison tech-head with Matt and Sam, Allura and Coran kept the coalition going. I went to Loris, South Carolina, to my godfather's farm to make a living as a farm hand. Really great exercise after being in space for a while. Heck, even my long-awaited growth spurt that was held off by space came. I went from five seven and a half to six four and a half. Lance can’t call me the short one now. I worked mainly with livestock, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, the two llamas, horses, a turtle, twelve dogs, seventeen cats, and the demon alpaca. Peaceful, past the broken arm from said alpaca. I also worked the fields, all ten acres of them. All of my work was by hand and done before dinner. You can’t fight good lard fried fish with mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy with a nice big glass of sweet Carolina lemon iced tea. Lance would call me a dweeb, but I liked the tea as much as I liked Kosmo, and he’s the goodest boy ever.

Lances Pov

We had to get Keith because of some disturbances on the moon by angry aliens. “Hey black, can you take us to Keith?” The lion responded and let all of us into the cockpit. “Let's get Keith.” Two hours later and we were playing I spy while still in the air. “I spy, something big.” Pidge looked around and held on as we nose drove. “That farm?” I nodded and fell on the floor as Black landed. “I think we’re here.” Black spit us out as we composed ourselves. “Does Keith Kogane live here?” we were face to face with an older, sickly gentleman who had come out with a flashlight. “Yes he does, would yall like me to get him?” where were we? “Make it fast, I have to harvest the cotton by hand in two hours and I don’t want to get a late start.” Was this tall, tan, muscular, hottie with a bun and dirt-encrusted hands of a hard worker Keith? “Lance I swear if you don’t stop looking at my chest you will be sleeping with the pigs.” I must’ve been bright red. Oh god, I’m gay.

Keith's Pov

The second we got back I was alarmed. My godmother was sitting on the porch swing silently, a never for her. I ran up to the house and she stood up and took off her hat looking down. Then mom came out and whispered something to her while taking her hair down, she only did that when something tragic happens. The other paladins were laughing til I looked at my godfather's window and fell to my knees. Yahrzeit candles were lit in his room and the curtains were pulled shut. He never shut his blinds. Tears rolled down my face as my godmother wrapped her arms around me to console me. Then my mother said the words of my nightmares.

  
**“Keith, the stars have called him home.”**

 

The funeral was a small one the next week, just myself, Krolia, my godmother, and the paladins along with Shiro. His ashes were buried next to my fathers ashes, and generations before them. We weren’t a highly religious family, but we still have customs and respect. I know at least Lance was freaking out about my glasses, but I wore them for the funeral, not him. At the end I placed a rose on his grave and put on my hat, solemnly walking towards the house with my godmother, only customary for me to walk the newly widowed to her house. I heard Shiro tell the Paladins to get into the car before walking over to me. Nothing he said made me feel better, but I had to keep going. The farm needed someone to take lead and ownership, and that was what I had to do.

“Sorry Shiro, I can’t come to the Garrison Christmas party, I’m busy planning my wedding and it’s the same day as the party.” I was helping my godmother make biscuits since I had already done everything with the animals and had nothing to harvest. “Wait, wedding?” I laughed and kneaded the dough calmly. “Yep, myself and Ash got engaged in November.” Ash was actually Ashley, but I wanted Shiro confused. “They sound great. Are the palafam invited to the wedding?” “I was thinking she and I would have a small wedding, but sure.” I started cutting biscuits while Sage started on the Beaufort Stew. “Anyway, even if I wanted to go to the party I couldn’t. I’d have to leave tonight and I refuse to miss Sage’s Beaufort Stew. You have no clue what you’re missing.” Shiro laughed and looked over his shoulder. “Adam and the puppies demand attention Shiro, go to them.” Adam was found a few months ago in a prisoner camp and he and Shiro got engaged and got a lot of puppies. “See ya Keith.” he hung up as I put the biscuits in the oven. Later that night Takashi and Adam showed up for Beaufort Stew, guess they couldn’t miss it either.


End file.
